Where ignorance is not bliss….Menaka Rao
Lack of Knowledge while malnutrition is rampant in Melghat region due to many reasons, ignorance about what constitutes nutritious food is intensifying the problem
Lack of Knowledge while malnutrition is rampant in Melghat region due to many reasons, ignorance about what constitutes nutritious food is intensifying the problem
While trying to wean her seven-month old daughter, Rashi, off breast milk, Sugandhi Betekar, 25, would often give her a glucose biscuit to chew on.
She didn’t eat the biscuit. I am still breast feeding her, said Sugandhi, who had got Rashi to the Bihali primary health subcentre at Chikaldara in Amravati’s Melghat region, on Friday for cough and cold treatment.
Rashi’s frequent illnesses are the first sign of weak immunity levels. If the child is not provided adequate nutritional food other than breast milk as she grows up, she could develop malnutritionrelated complications, said Dr Samir Dalwai, who runs the New Horizons Child Development Centre at Goregaon.
According to Dalwai, malnutrition does not mean just lack of protein and calories. It also means the lack of the essential nutrients such as iron, manganese and selenium. The child will probably not grow in height, if he does not have enough proteins and calories. But the child can die without micronutrients.
Dalwai was part of group lead by member of Parilament Supriya Sule and minister of state for health Fauzia Khan that visited three villages in Chikhaldara on Friday. Their visit followed the release of the national Human Development Index report last month that listed Maharashtra as having one of the lowest HDIs, an index that measures parameters such as life expectancy and standard of living.
Melghat, a tribal belt, is one of the worst affected regions in the state. Over the past four months, 226 children have died of malnutrition-related illnesses in the region, according to the state health department. In Chikhaldhara alone, of a total of 14,609 children, 4,131 suffer from varying degrees of malnutrition.
While malnutrition is rampant in the region for a variety of reasons, including lack of health facilities, ignorance about what constitutes a nutritious diet has also played a large part, said health activists. Many women in the area do not know how to wean their child off breastfeeding and what kind of nutrition to provide them, said Purnima Upadhyay, founder member of Khoj Foundation, a non-profit working in the area.
While breastfeeding should continue till the child is two years old, the child needs additional nutrition after it is six months old. I have seen children been given a hard jowar roti to chew.
How is a child supposed to eat it? There is no one to train these women, said Upadhyay.
How is a child supposed to eat it? There is no one to train these women, said Upadhyay.
Food should be introduced in its mashed form and only after the child should be given solid food, which requires chewing and biting.
Most people do not seem to know about nutrition in this area.
While we are providing nutritious food through government schemes, we also need to educate the people about it, said Fauzia Khan, minister of state for health, woman and child welfare.
The food provided by the government for a child below three years includes take-home ration comprising ready-to-eat mix of upma and sheera or cooked food that is provided as per a Bombay high court order passed in May. However, most children do not like eating the ration food because it is too bland, said local activists. Also, improper storage also affects the quality of the food.
Changing agricultural patterns have also had an impact on people’s diet. I have noticed that people no longer eat a variety of food here. They either eat dalrice, jowar roti or sometimes fish. This cannot give the child enough nutrition, said Dr Priyadarsh Ture, medical officer, primary health centre, Katkumbh, Chikhaldara.
Also, people in Melghat are increasingly growing cash crops, particularly soya bean. Earlier, people grew local pulses and millets. These days, they are more interested in cultivating soya that cannot be eaten without being processed, said Upadhyay.
Melghat tribes have limited access to the forest that used to provide them with food.
Dr Dalwai believes that the problem of malnutrition can improve by providing medical nutrient therapy, a micronutrient preparation that needs to be administered to children with malnutrition like medicine.