Healthy Child Growth and Economy – Is there a link?

Investing in a child’s growth has great economic benefits. [1]

It can be viewed as a cycle as follows- Healthy children grow up being healthy adults and in turn these healthy adults will get well paid jobs and thus will help in economic growth of the country and vice versa.

First 1000 days which include gestation, and first two years of life is a great window of opportunity where, focussing on healthy growth and nutrition can have a significant impact on human capital in the nation, communities and on the individual themselves [2]

In past 15 years many countries have started integrated programmes which include nutrition, education, health and income supplementation.

Below are the benefits associated with ECCD (Early Childhood development Programmes) [1]

• Younger Children -Improved health, psychosocial development, improved school attendance and performance
• Older children - Reduced responsibility of their younger siblings
• Parents - Improved employment and psychological well being
• Society- Healthier and literate population, more productive adults

A Healthy child is a potentially valuable economic investment. Making investments in child’s health yields great returns and sets favourable demographic changes, also produces healthy and more productive adults. So, safeguarding child’s health is of utmost importance as it otherwise impairs the child’s adult years of life and is detrimental to the economy of the country as well.