Strengthening public health nutrition education in India

Abstract

Malnutrition remains a major challenge for public health and for human and economic development in India. A lack of adequately trained public health professionals and nutritionists means that this challenge is not being met. Due to resource constraints, the most realistic way of improving this situation is to optimise the use of existing infrastructure. The first step to do this is to assess the current landscape of public health nutrition (PHN) education in India. Based on a situation analysis and recent findings from qualitative studies undertaken by the Transform Nutrition capacity building team, at the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), this brief summarises recommendations for the role of higher education in tackling malnutrition in India