Malnutrition is the leading cause of child mortality in India. Between 40 and 50% of child deaths under the age of five are due to malnourishment. 60% of children in Seva Mandir’s work area are suffering from some form of malnutrition.
The reasons for child malnutrition are multidimensional, ranging from inappropriate feeding and childcare practices and endemic poverty to lack of sanitation facilities and safe drinking water and lack of effective healthcare. Due to the multidimensional nature of the problem and the lack of coherent interventions on the ground, improvements in child malnutrition are very slow.
Seva Mandir has developed programmes and solutions to each of these problems separately and has been implementing them for many years. From