Bhubanswar: The exceptionally high malnutrition deaths of 18 children at Nagada in Sukinda valley of Jajpur district exposed the glaring lapses in the state’s initiatives to check undernourishment deaths.
Though Odisha’s progress in improving nutrition outcomes for children under two years of age has been good, Unicef feels Odisha needs a “Nutrition Mission” to improve it further to check chronic undernutrition (stunting).
Unicef is holding a workshop on relevance of a Nutrition Mission for Odisha on Wednesday. After Maharashtra pioneered the Nutrition Mission model to address malnutrition in 2005 and achieved phenomenal success in checking under nutrition and stunting, states such as Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh ad Gujarat too have launched such missions in their states.
During a visit Maharashtra by a media team on August 23 and August 24, Vandana Krishna, director general of Maharashtra Nutrition Mission, said the mission helped Maharashtra to have a focused approach to nutrition issues through its advisory and supervisory role. The mission will soon start its third phase activities.
Suprabha Agarwal, director of the Maharashtra Nutrition Mission, said the mission is a small body with no programme of its own. It only coordinates with various departments for convergence of various schmes meant for women and children. Empowerment of anganwadis was a major achievement of the mission, she said.
A reality check at various anganwadis in Thane district of Maharashtra showed, the anganwadi centres are hub of activities in the village. Digital anganwadis with audio-visual units and wall hangings of study materials dot Thane. Through capacity building programmes and involvement of community members, pregnant women and infants have become essential part of the centres.
One would notice the anganwadi workers are super-confident women in villages with good grasp on various government schemes, types nutritious of food needed for pregnant women and lactating mothers.
Odisha’s stunting reduced by 6.8 per cent from 45% in 2005-06 (National Family Health Survey III) to 38.2% in 2013-14 (as per Rapid Survey on Children). However, Maharashtra reduced it by 10.9% during the same period from 46.3% to 35.4%. It further reduced to 34.4% in NFHS IV (2015-16), the result of which is yet to come for Odisha, The Times of India reported.
At the national level, stunting reduced by 9.3%, from 48% in 2005-06 to 38.7% in 2013-14.