Hunger and nutrition

The holding centres often lack necessities like water and sanitation, and the people held there are lucky if they even receive two meals a day, as food stocks are often too low to supply enough meals. The need for blankets and winter kits is increasing.

The initiative’s cornerstone is the Training and Capacity Building Programme Calendar prepared by the National Fisheries Development Board in coordination with Indian Council of Agricultural Research fisheries institutes.

Many households will meet minimum food needs only by depleting essential livelihood assets – a sharp deterioration compared with the previous year.

A production-based model, per September 2025 talks, could align incentives, but unions fear diluted guarantees. The government eyes hybrid funding, yet delays breed unrest.

The report calls for the government and industry joining hands to strengthen social protection, enforce labour laws, and support climate adaptation.

The launch, done together with the Ministry of Health and UNICEF in Bhutan,  coincides with UNICEF’s new global child nutrition report, which finds that overweight and obesity are rising fast among children, including in Bhutan.

With each mother who learns to cook a new, nutritious meal, and each spoonful of semolina porridge lovingly fed to a child, the cycle of poverty and poor health begins to break.

Using self-reported questionnaires, the survey assessed aspects such as alcohol and drug use, eating habits, physical activity levels, psychosocial wellbeing, injuries, exposure to violence and skipping meals due to food insufficiency.