The government would soon announce adoption of new WHO standards on child growth.
A national workshop to discuss the standards unanimously recommended its adoption.
The government only needs time to 'train' and 'acclimatise' the anganwadi and health workers on the new standards, a senior Women and Child ministry official said.
It can be done in six months after the child growth charts based on new standards are printed.
It was also decided that the charts will have only three classifications ---- normal child, moderate and severely malnourished child. The anganwadi worker should be designated as a child monitor at the village level, is one of the recommendation of the workshop to the government.
The new guidelines establish breastfeeding as the biological norm and breastfed infant as the standard for measuring health growth. The earlier standard was based on mixed feeding principles.
Email Chetan Chouhan: chetan@hindustantimes.com