GS Analyst: Daily Current Affairs

Context:

Understanding the profound link between early nutrition, cognitive development, and educational outcomes is crucial. A study sheds light on how childhood stunting affects cognitive skills, emphasizing the need for effective policies to enhance educational outcomes, especially in low- and middle-income countries like India.

Background and Challenges:

The interrelation: While the long-term impact of early childhood stunting on education is acknowledged, the specific cognitive skills impacted are: working memory, inhibitory control, long-term memory, and implicit learning. The focus shifts from traditional achievement tests to broader cognitive abilities.

Challenges in Research: The study addresses a challenge in research, which often focuses on specific cognitive-achievement test scores, potentially overlooking the complex interplay of cognitive skills and access to education.

Nutrition and Skills: Cognitive skills, being less dependent on educational investments, provide a more comprehensive understanding of the impact of early under-nutrition on later cognitive abilities.

Key Findings and India’s perspective:

-Impact: a negative relationship between stunting at age 5 and executive functions measured years later. The impact on working memory, influenced by vocabulary development, manifests as early as age 5, highlighting the critical importance of early childhood nutrition.

- Women’s Status: Women's height and educational attainment strongly predict child stunting in India, emphasizing the need for interventions that improve these factors.

- Policy Measures: Policies like Poshan Abhiyaan and the Integrated Child Development Services, focusing on holistic development and nutrition, address the issue of stunting in high-burden districts.

Strategies for Improvement:

Promoting Early Breastfeeding: Expansion of initiatives like the Mother’s Absolute Affection Programme for lactation support. Leveraging mobile technology to educate mothers on the importance of exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months.

Diversifying Children's Diet: Implementation and scaling up of community-based complementary feeding programs. Educating parents about the significance of adding diverse, locally available, nutrient-rich foods to a child's diet after six months.

Enhancing Anganwadi Workforce: Adding an extra Anganwadi worker to each center to double preschool instructional time. Studies suggest this approach can improve math and language scores, reduce stunting, and create substantial employment opportunities.

Context: Community health is a important area for any state, the impact of populist health policies on public health in India represents a challenges. Thus, emphasis should be on the need for evidence-based, long-term strategies to address preventive measures, policy formulation, and community health.

1. Populist Health Policies and their Impact:

   - Immediate Results vs. Long-Term Prevention: Political leaders prioritize initiatives with immediate results, such as new hospitals and emergency response, neglecting critical areas like sanitation, disease surveillance, and public health education.

   - Dengue Case: The focus on immediate relief during dengue outbreaks sidelines long-term strategies, hindering research in vector control, vaccine development, and improvement in public health infrastructure.

   - Balanced Decision-Making: A separation of health-care decision-making from short-term political goals is crucial for developing sustainable health strategies that meet both immediate and future health needs.

2. Gaps in Public Health Education and Behavioral Change:

   - Lack of Specialized Courses: The absence of courses like public health engineering in India's educational institutions reveals a gap in the multidisciplinary approach needed for effective public health management.

   - Behavioral Change Challenge: Political environments influenced by populist tendencies make it challenging to implement behavioral changes crucial for managing public health challenges.

- Regulatory ambiguity: The presence of multiple regulators often working at cross purposes further makes the Public Heath Ecosystem complex.

3. Autonomy in Public Health Management:

   - Separation of Powers Approach: Adopting a separation of powers approach in public health management, emphasizing freedom from political influence for policymaking and implementation.

   - Ideal Solution: Placing Health Ministries directly under elected officials, such as Chief Ministers or Prime Ministers, to provide autonomy and align health policies with immediate needs while maintaining a balance with expert-driven decisions.

   - Holistic, Long-Term Approach: A more holistic, long-term approach in public health policy, addressing infectious diseases, non-communicable diseases, healthcare access, mental health, and misinformation.

Context:

The link between economic growth and rising inequality in India is a concern. The same has been reflected in the concerns voiced by global investors regarding the country's economic outlook.  Hence, it is pertinent to emphasize on the need to evaluate the impact of growth policies on income distribution and social cohesion.

1. Unequal Growth and Divergent Economic Outcomes:

   - Predictions on India's Economic Size: Various leaders, including PM Narendra Modi, aim for ambitious economic targets, with recent statements at the World Economic Forum suggesting India as a $10 trillion economy in the making.

   - Economic Agenda Dominated by Growth: The unprecedented focus on economic growth in democracies, with leaders prioritizing growth goals over other aspects of development.

- Growth Plus Rising Inequality: Recent economic growth in India has been accompanied by increasing inequality, dating back to the 1980s and intensifying in subsequent decades. Despite overall economic growth, the rising tide of growth appears insufficient to improve the income levels of the poorest sections of society.

   - Social Pathologies and Collective Action: Unequal societies experience social pathologies, including violence and mental health disorders. It suggests that inequality hinders collective action by lowering trust between groups, impacting initiatives like the Swachh Bharat Mission.

3. Impact of Unequal Growth on Rural Wage Rates:

   - Inequality in Agricultural and Non-Agricultural Sectors: The analysis of rural wage rates reveals that real wages for non-agricultural and construction workers have decreased, indicating disparities in economic benefits.

   - Stagnant Per Capita Income at the Bottom: While the economy has grown, per capita income at the bottom of the pyramid, especially for 35% of India's workforce, has not seen significant improvement.

   - Democratic Principles: The reduction of inequality is framed not only as a means to address challenges but as an essential aspect of democratic principles, emphasizing the historical neglect of economic policy regarding gross inequality of opportunity.