Preventing growth faltering in India: a policy perspective for strengthening prevention within POSHAN 2.0 and CMAM

Abstract

Growth faltering during early childhood remains a major public health challenge in India despite substantial reductions in stunting over the past two decades. Persistent levels of wasting indicate important gaps in early-life nutrition, growth monitoring, and preventive interventions. This perspective examines the current policy landscape and proposes strategies to strengthen prevention within existing national nutrition programmes. This is a policy perspective synthesized evidences from national survey data, government policy documents, programme evaluations, and published literature on child undernutrition and growth faltering in India, used to identify gaps and propose strategies for strengthening prevention within POSHAN 2.0 and Community-Based Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM). Existing national nutrition programmes provide platforms for identification and management of malnutrition. Preventive nutrition services could be strengthened through earlier detection of growth faltering, particularly among infants younger than six months, alongside consistent growth monitoring, enhanced frontline worker capacity, stronger convergence across health and nutrition programmes, and improved use of routine surveillance data. Integrating trajectory-based growth monitoring and preventive counselling within community-based platforms offers an opportunity to support earlier identification and timely intervention while strengthening programme delivery systems. Integrating growth faltering as a preventive trigger within POSHAN 2.0 and CMAM can shift India's response to malnutrition from reactive management to proactive prevention. Strengthening programme convergence, frontline capacity, community engagement, and growth surveillance can improve child nutrition outcomes and long-term human capital development.