Fighting Malnutrition: Reviving not reinventing the wheel

Today’s article is about an officer who did everything to bring a change around herself with the help of locally available resources and with the help of common people. This story is about fighting malnutrition with the existing system. But first, let’s look at some of the reports related to the health of our children. 

What does the Global hunger index report tell us about malnutrition ?

• India's GHI score 2023 stands at 28.7 and it is categorized as "serious" on the GHI Severity of Hunger Scale. 
• Related Data and References about Malnutrition from other reports-
• Child stunting is prevalent at 35.5% according to India's National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 2019-2021.
• The prevalence of undernourishment in India is 16.6% according to the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report 2023.
• India's child wasting rate is a concerning 18.7% according to India’s NFHS 2019-21, the highest among all countries in the report.
• The under-five mortality rate stands at 3.1% according to the United Nations Inter-Agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation January 2023.

Geographically if we see, Maharashtra followed by Bihar and Gujarat have the worst levels of malnourishment in children in India. Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, and Jharkhand have very high rates of undernutrition in India. Incidentally, these regions also have the highest population of children, and the highest poverty rates in the country.

The Story 

So, the story begins in Lunglei, Mizoram. IAS Shiksha Sharma went to Lunglei, Mizoram as its Deputy Commissioner. Everything was going good until one fine day her maid enrolled her then year-old son in an anganwadi. When the little one came home, the officer was surprised to see the packets of uncooked dal and rice that the child was carrying.

• Investigation revealed that the majority of the children in the anganwadi and nearby schools were undernourished. Furthermore, the officer noticed that the anganwadis were operating under inadequate infrastructure and not serving cooked meals, fresh fruits or veggies which provide essential nutrients to the kids.
• Lunglei is geographically Mizoram’s one of the most backward and disaster-prone districts where monsoons cut off 40 of the 172 villages completely. Most of the produce that enters the district in trucks from Silchar, Assam takes two to three days to arrive. Naturally, these perishable goods are either unfit to consume or too expensive to purchase forcing people to depend largely on the Public Distribution System of the state. 

As a means to tackle these problems, the officer and her team established “ My School, My farm”, where they set up nutrition gardens in anganwadis and schools. This initiative faced many challenges in the beginning like unavailability of seeds and manure, and lack of access to water for irrigation among others. Yet, her will stayed firm and today, her project has reached more than 713 anganwadis and schools in Mizoram. 

Under the initiative - “My School, My farm”, the administration used recyclable items for planters, built full-fledged nursery beds, grew leafy greens, and fruits and spices. It also gained the attention of the state administration and central government which is now releasing grants to replicate the model in all anganwadis and schools throughout the state for the betterment of the children.

The officer now plans to set up livestock and poultry in these schools and anganwadis so these nutritional gardens become self-sufficient and healthy places.