Nagpur, March 26 Lack of nutrition during pregnancy affects the growth of fetuses and puts children at risk of lifelong diseases, including diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular conditions, later in life, experts have said.
Therefore, protecting maternal and child nutrition is one of the most effective climate adaptation strategies, they said.
The experts expressed their views during a discussion at a capacity-building workshop organized here by UNICEF India and the Press Information Bureau (PIB) on 'Maternal Nutrition Priorities and Inclusive Early Childhood Development' on Wednesday.
UNICEF now recognizes climate change as a key structural driver of all forms of malnutrition. Climate shocks affect nutrition through multiple pathways. Also, rising food prices reduce dietary diversity. These impacts are also seen in Maharashtra, where droughts, heat stress, and agrarian distress disproportionately affect pregnant women in tribal areas, urban informal settlements, and climate-impacted farming districts, a release said.
This lack of nutrition in early childhood development affects fetuses for lifelong diseases, including diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular conditions.
"When a pregnant woman faces food insecurity, heat stress, or physically demanding labor, it's not just her health at risk, but it's the lifelong health trajectory of her child at risk," said Dr. Mrudula Phadke, former Vice Chancellor of Maharashtra University of Health Sciences.
Early nutrition and caregiving also shape brain development.
"Evidence from Maharashtra reinforces that nutrition, Early Childhood Development (ECD), climate vulnerability, and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are part of a single, interconnected pathway, beginning before conception and accelerating in the first 1,000 days," said Dr. Subodh S Gupta, MD (pediatrics) and Professor & Head of Department of Community Medicine at the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (MGIMS), Sewagram.
The fetal and early infancy period is when the body's metabolism is "programmed". Poor nutrition during this phase increases susceptibility to obesity, insulin resistance, and type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease, and mental health later in life.
Childhood non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are fast becoming a silent emergency in Maharashtra, affecting over six million children across the state. Conditions once considered adult illnesses, such as diabetes, asthma, congenital heart disease, sickle cell disease, and obesity, are now affecting children in growing numbers.
These can be prevented with simple interventions at the early stage.
Maharashtra's experience demonstrates that preventing early growth failure protects child survival and brain development, reduces future NCD risk, and builds human capital resilience in climate-vulnerable communities. It delivers long-term cost avoidance by lowering future health system and productivity losses.
"Protecting maternal and child nutrition is one of the most effective climate adaptation strategies we have. The evidence is clear: interventions that strengthen maternal nutrition and reduce environmental stress during pregnancy offer one of the most cost-effective pathways to break intergenerational cycles of malnutrition and vulnerability," said Sanjay Singh, chief of UNICEF Maharashtra.
"The workshop reiterates the central government's commitment to ensure that every pregnant woman in the country, especially in our climate-vulnerable tribal and rural communities, receives nutrition, care, and protection she needs to give her child the healthiest possible start in life," said Smita Vats-Sharma, Director General - West Zone of the PIB.
