There have been many policies and programmes that currently exist in India which include both nutrition specific and nutrition sensitive for reduction of stunting. Some of policies are supplementary nutrition programme of integrated child development services to provide nutrient supplementation to pregnant and lactating women, The mid day meal scheme for school children, The national rural employment guarantee scheme which ensured work for rural areas, National Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan campaign to improve sanitation facilities and also to reduce open defecation .However effect of these policies as well programmes varies among different states of India due to gaps in implementation . Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan Program faced various implementation challenges due to poor targeting, corruption, lack of infrastructure(Raykar et al,2015)
This review identifies that for successful intervention combination of factors that can result in stunting should be considered. Mostly nutrition counseling and supplementation during and after pregnancy, vitamin supplementation, education, and immunization are included in this intervention programme. The effect of this intervention can be accessed by comparing the indicators such as height for age, weight for age, weight for height according to the WHO child growth standards before and after the intervention. Therefore changes are noticed such as weight gain; increase in height during the intervention. Previously it was seen with various policies in India that gaps in implementation occur due to lack of political commitment therefore at country level ,strong political commitment is required in order for successful implementation. Gaps can also occur due to complex design of the programme and also due to lack of resources for adequate implementation of the interventions.
Recommendations could be In addition to this at community level involvement of community members and leaders could help in achieving the interventions successfully and also helps in stunting reduction .Due to complicated nature of intervention strategies strong political commitment, community engagement, linkages between different sectors would help in achieving effective nutritional intervention programme.
