Patna: The state government in Jharkhand has planned a massive 1,000-day campaign to fight malnutrition among children. According to the latest report of the National Nutrition Survey, 43 per cent of children in the state are malnourished.
A health department official said the government had planned to launch the campaign shortly which will be directly monitored by chief minister Hemant Soren. Reports said the government is alarmed at the rate of malnourishment among tribal children 20 years after the formation of the state. Jharkhand was carved out of Bihar in November 2000.
Under part of the campaign, various teams of health workers will visit every home across the state and gather details about the malnourished children below five years. The health department will soon impart training to the health workers about what should be the indicators for identifying the malnourished children.
“We are committed to eradicate malnutrition from the state. With this objective the government is soon going to launch the Strategic Action for Alleviation of Malnutrition and Anaemia Reduction project,” a Press statement issued by the Jharkhand government said on Thursday. According to the government, it intends to improve maternal and child health indicators in the state in the next three years with the help of this project.
Baseline measurement exercise and rapid reporting system
Reports said during a recent meeting with all the stakeholders departments, chief secretary Sukhdeo Singh dwelt upon the plan for implementation of State Nutrition Mission across the state. He also directed the department concerned, such as Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society, Integrated Child Development Scheme and Health Departments to work in proper coordination to achieve the result.
The government said in the first phase, the campaign would be launched in five of 24 districts. Thousands of health workers will conduct the baseline survey using an app specially built for smartphones. The Survey team will visit every household under the purview of the Anganwadi Centre and identify malnourished and anaemic women and children using visual tests against a symptom list, as well as collect pertinent social security related data from the household.
All respondents exhibiting symptoms will be summoned to the nearest Anganwadi Centre for a formal check-up and on confirmation of malnourishment or anaemia, required action will be taken in accordance to the guidelines, the government said. It added all the children suffering from critical malnutrition would be taken to nearest Health Centre for better treatment.
The government hopes the campaign will reduce the cases of stunting, wasting and anaemia among children and help create a healthy society. It will also help in reducing maternal death during pregnancy, neonatal deaths and several other issues related to maternal and child health, it added.
Colourful food
The government’s efforts come amid the Centre for World Security (CWS), a non-profit organisation, launching a unique campaign in many villages of Jharkhand to fight the incidence of malnutrition among children. As part of this campaign, parents are being advised to serve colourful food to the children to keep them healthy.
The villagers are being advised to include three-colour food in their daily diet to boost the health of their children — green from leafy vegetables representing vitamins and minerals, white from rice representing carbohydrate and saffron/yellow from lentils or pulses representing proteins.
