Tribal villages show the way to combat malnutrition
A low- cost model using traditional delicacies has helped children gain weight naturally as villagers donate their surplus grains for the project
Eightt rib al villages in poverty stricken Bundelkhand and Bag helkh and regions of Madhya Pradesh have turned a laboratory of a “unique” experiment — to combat malnutrition among children with the help of local traditional delicacies.
A first- of- its- kind communitybased initiative based on a low- cost self- sustaining model has led to a decline in cases of severely acute malnutrition ( SAM) in these villages drastically in just one year.
In fact, half of these “test” villages, considered the poorest habitations in MP, have been able to combat the menace successfully, and now boast of having zero SAM case.
Kota Gunjapur in Panna district, Khaira Siya and Garuwahi in Rewa district and Jangela in Umaria district have recorded zero SAM case in December last year, the latest official survey has confirmed.
“A total of 14 children in the four tribal villages had been identified as SAM cases in 2016. Not a single case of SAM has been found in these villages now. More importantly, the villages have been freed of the menace for once and all, thanks to the self- sustaining model, a first of its kind initiative in the country,” right to food activist Sachin Kumar Jain told this newspaper.
Other four villages which have witnessed a fall in the number of SAM cases are Birgarha and Kaimaha in Satna district, Karondi in Umaria district and Manas Nagar in Panna district.
The initiative involved charting balanced diet out of traditional tribal delicacies, made of locally raised food grains and vegetables to serve the malnourished children.
Women from villages in the project area have been given specialised training to prepare the balanced diet with contributions from the communities to serve to the malnourished children of day care centres, run by a group of NGOs, for the purpose, said Mr Jain whose organisation, Vikas Samvad, was also a part of the initiative.
The diet comprised tribal delicacies made of cereals and millets such as wheat, jowar ( sorghum, a staple of locals used for making roti), kodo ( corn flour, and bajra ( pearl millet).
Tribal dishes served to children in the centres included mixed porridge ( known in local parlance khichdi), “rotis” made of jowar, bajra and wheat, bottle gourd “kheer” ( a sweet made of milk and gourd), “pua”, a cake made of wheat heated with oil prepared from “dori” ( fruit of mahua tree) and mahua laddoo ( a sweet having high nutritious value) and gram flour laddoo, also a nutritious sweet.
Besides, tribal dishes made of edible roots and tubers, found in the forest also form part of the balanced diet.
The communities in the villages contribute the surplus food grains and vegetables raised in their kitchen gardens to these centres to serve cooked food to children coming to day care centres.
The farmers in these villages have been provided seeds of locally grown crops and imparted training to raise kitchen gardens.
“The key component of the concept is to create a self- sustaining model to help the villagers to find a lasting solution to menaces of poverty related issues such as malnutrition and migration. The model involves tapping of mere local resources,” Ram Naresh Yadav, one of the executioners of the project, said.
“I have made field visits to the project area. I find the model very helpful in improving socio- economic conditions of the tribals. I have noticed that situation of malnutrition in some villages under the project area has improved,” block coordinator of Integrated Child Development Scheme ( ICDS) in Jawa in Rewa district, Sudhir Kumar Patel, told this newspaper.
Official sources said the initiative has drawn attention of women and child development department of MP government here.
The project has been expanded to 100 villages in four districts of Panna, Rewa, Umaria and Satna.
Around 4,000 families in these villages have raised kitchen gardens in their homes, which supplied them vegetables and food grains for eight months in a year, besides supplementing their income as they sold the surplus produce in the market.
“Migration from these villages has come down due to revival of agriculture operations,” a senior officer of Panna district said.