Days after a group of independent experts criticised the “commercial exploitation” of malnutrition and said the private sector should be kept out of any crusade against malnutrition, the Lancet, the renowned British medical journal, has advocated just the opposite, saying private players ought to be part of the campaign.

But the magazine, whose latest issue focusing on maternal and child nutrition was released in the national capital on Friday, has stressed that non-alcoholic beverages like cold drinks are not part of the nutrition programme campaign. 

“There is absolute unanimity that colas (aerated soft drinks) are not good for health and a healthy nutrition. So they (manufacturers of such drinks) are not part of our nutrition campaign. They have no role to play in nutrition (campaign),” said Professor K Srinath Reddy, president of public health foundation of India (PHFI) who was part of release of the Lancet series in India on Friday.

The institute will soon prepare a letter of clarification on this issue, he said.

The medical journal has come out with a series of articles on maternal and child nutrition, also attracting ire of independent experts. They criticised Lancet’s “commercial exploitation of malnutrition”, contending that the magazine champions inclusion of private players in the nutrition-specific interventions.

But clarifying to this on behalf of Lancet, Robert Black, of the department of global health, John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, USA, said: “If you polarise the debate and say that they (private companies) are not part of the solution, it is not good. It (private sector) is a very important part of the economy and production of food in the country. It could be part of solution perhaps.”

Black is also one of the authors of Lancet’s latest series on maternal and child nutrition.

In its latest issue, the magazine says: “The private sector has substantial potential to contribute to acceleration of improvements in nutrition, but efforts to realise this have to date been hindered by a scarcity of credible evidence and trust. Both these issues need substantial attention if the positive potential is to be realized.”

On the criticism of India being under pressure to join the Scaling up Nutrition (SUN) network, which advocates private sector engagement in tackling malnutrition, the authors denied any such pressure. “India is under no pressure to join SUN,” said Venkatesh Mannar, president of Micronutrient Initiative.
“India is not dependant on global assistance,” said Purnima Menon, senior research fellow, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), while trying to clarify the question of pressure on India to join the network.

A group of independent experts, including Arun Gupta, a member of prime minister’s panel of nutrition security, had released a media statement on June 24 calling for raising the guard against the commercial exploitation of malnutrition. “The call for engaging with the ‘private sector’ and unregulated marketing of commercial foods for preventing malnutrition in children raises serious concerns. The inherent conflict of interest will ensure that commercial considerations override sustainable nutritional goals,” the statement says.

The national family health survey (NFHS) data has found 46 percent of Indian children below three years underweight, while 38 percent were found stunted.
“Left unchecked, this threatens not only individual lives and health, but India’s future,” Lancet says. It has also called for government to reduce the burden of under-nutrition and invest in data collection and targeted response to address malnutrition.

The medical journal also praised Maharashtra for successfully reducing stunting among children from 39 percent to 23 percent, and severe stunting from 15 percent to 8 percent, between 2005-06 and 2012.