Baran to give iron pans to Sahariya women to check malnourishment
KOTA: In a bid to curb malnourishment among tribal newborns, the Baran district administration would soon distribute 2kg of cast iron pan and seeds of green vegetables for kitchen garden to over 3500 pregnant Sahariya women.
Sahariya-dominated Kishanganj and Shahabad tehsils of Baran are marred with the problem of malnourishment among children. The district administ r a t i o n o f Ba r a n h a s n o w planned an innovation to effectively curb the problem.
District collector, Baran, Inder Singh Rao said that efforts are being made to eradicate malnourishment by providing nutritious food and micro nutrient supplements to the pregnant woman so that they reach the foetus.
“Researches have found that cooking in the iron pan can boost iron intake in the body as it i ncr e a s e s haemoglobin count,” he said. “We will further advise mothers to sprinkle lemon in iron pans for deriving maximum benefit,” he added.
Baran district administration has decided on this plan and the proposal would be sent to the union government in a couple of days for approval,” he said.
Baran has identified over 3,500 pregnant Sahariya women who would be given the iron pans once the project is approved, Rao said.
He f urt her s a i d t hat t he administration also has plans to provide Energy Dense Nutritional Supplement (EDNS) comprising jaggery, groundnut and camel milk to 3000 underweight tribal children.
There are around 1.13 lakh Sahariya population in Baran.
According to Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey (CNNS) report, around 40.9% children under five years of age are underweight and around 44.4% are anaemic. Rajasthan ranks 22 among 30 states in prevalence of underweight children in the under five category.