Explain the role of millets for ensuring health and nutritional security in India.

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Ghissu Editorial · Accepted Answer

Millets improve health by supplying iron, calcium, fibre and low-glycaemic, gluten-free energy that counter anaemia and diabetes, and they secure nutrition because they grow in rainfed, drought-prone areas. Finger millet carries about 344 mg of calcium per 100 g, many times more than rice.

**Introduction**

NFHS-5 (2019-21) found 67.1% of young children and 57% of women anaemic, even as diabetes spreads. Millets, notified as "Nutri-Cereals" in 2018 and promoted as Shree Anna during the International Year of Millets 2023, address both problems.

**How Millets Protect Health**

1. **Fighting anaemia**: Pearl millet is rich in iron, and the ICRISAT-bred biofortified Dhanashakti (2014) carries even more, suiting a country where iron deficiency is the commonest hidden hunger.
2. **Bone health**: Ragi has about 344 mg of calcium per 100 g, many times more than rice, vital for children and pregnant women.
3. **Lifestyle disease**: High fibre and a low glycaemic index slow sugar release, important when ICMR-INDIAB (2023) counted about 101 million diabetics; being gluten-free also helps coeliac patients.

**How Millets Strengthen Nutritional Security**

SKETCH: flow | From Field to Nutrition Security
- Hardy rainfed crop
- Stable local supply
- PDS, Anganwadi, school meals
- Diverse daily diet
- Less hidden hunger

1. **Climate-proof supply**: Millets need little water and tolerate heat, keeping food available in rainfed areas; India grows 38.4% of the world's millets (FAO, 2023).
2. **Reaching the poor**: The NFSA lets states issue coarse grains, now free, through the PDS, and the Odisha Millet Mission (2017) put ragi into PDS and Anganwadi meals.
3. **Diverse diets**: Only 11.3% of children aged 6-23 months get an adequate diet (NFHS-5), a gap left by the Green Revolution's tilt to rice and wheat that millets help fill.
4. **Limits to fix**: Phytates reduce mineral absorption unless grains are soaked or sprouted, and costly processing keeps millets off urban plates.

**Conclusion**

Millets fight hidden hunger and lifestyle disease while staying climate-resilient. Built into PDS, Poshan 2.0 and daily diets, Shree Anna can move India from food security to nutrition security under SDG 2.

Explain the role of millets for ensuring health and nutritional security in India.

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