How a multi-dimensional approach is changing lives in rural Rajasthan

By Bharat Dogra

Reducing malnutrition in areas of high vulnerability remains a significant challenge for health and nutrition in India. While the Indian government has succeeded in expanding nutrition programs across the country, budgetary and implementation problems persist. If community mobilization and participation can be increased and a multi-dimensional approach adopted, with greater resources and improved implementation, significantly better results can be achieved.

Such a multi-dimensional effort, implemented by the voluntary organization Basic Healthcare Services (BHS), has achieved encouraging results over about a decade in several clusters of remote villages in the Udaipur and Salumbar districts of South Rajasthan. Earlier surveys had revealed high levels of malnutrition. When asked if they had consumed vegetables and pulses during the last 24 hours, about half the women replied that they had not. When asked about milk, only 5% replied that they had consumed milk in the last 24 hours.

BHS operates a health program in the region with clinics called AMRIT and community health workers based in nearby villages. Female health workers closely monitor the health of various households in their village, and those suffering from malnutrition are encouraged to go to the clinic. In addition to standard clinical treatment, certain categories of individuals with serious malnutrition also receive nutrition supplements, including malnourished children. TB patients also receive nutritious food for the duration of their treatment.

Child nutrition is strongly supported by setting up 17 phulwaris, or child nutrition and play centers. Small children attend for about seven hours and are served three meals of khichdi (a combination of cereal, pulses, and vegetables), sattu (based on gram flour), and eggs. They play and also acquire some learning skills and health information, in addition to adopting hygiene practices.

In addition, efforts are made to increase the sustained availability of healthy food by helping households to increase and improve livelihoods based on poultry and goats. Households are also encouraged to grow more kitchen gardens and are assisted by the provision of seeds. BHS has also secured the help and partnership of another voluntary organization, Gramshree, in these efforts. These initiatives are aimed mainly at increasing the availability of nutritious food in these households, particularly in the form of vegetables and eggs, while in some cases also helping them increase cash earnings, such as from the sale of goats.

Community health workers make constant efforts to disseminate essential nutrition messages on subjects like easily available and cheaper sources of good nutrition in local conditions. Several attractively produced picture books and leaflets on this subject have been published and are available with the community health workers.

All these initiatives taken together have resulted in a significant reduction in malnutrition, particularly in the villages covered by the phulwaris.

The current period is particularly important for stepping up nutrition programs in this region, as the kharif crops standing in the fields have been badly damaged. In such conditions, setting up food banks to provide pulses, millets, and cereals could be useful.

While the BHS nutrition program is already multi-dimensional, it can be conceptualized at a yet wider level to advance nutrition, food security/sovereignty, seed sovereignty, sustainable livelihoods, and self-reliance issues in a more holistic way. This can be done in ways that are also in tune with climate mitigation and adaptation, thereby meeting another pressing need of changing times.

---

The writer is the Honorary Convener of the Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include India’s Quest for Sustainable Farming and Healthy Food, Earth without Borders, Man over Machine, and A Day in 2071

Comments

Is vaccine the Voldemort of modern medicine to be left undiscussed, unscrutinised?

By Deepika* Sridhar Vembu of Zoho stirred up an internet storm by tweeting about the possible link of autism to the growing number of vaccines given to children in India . He had only asked the parents to analyse the connection but doctors, so called public health experts vehemently started opposing Vembu's claims, labeling them "dangerous misinformation" that could erode “vaccine trust”!

N-power plant at Mithi Virdi: CRZ nod is arbitrary, without jurisdiction

By Krishnakant* A case-appeal has been filed against the order of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) and others granting CRZ clearance for establishment of intake and outfall facility for proposed 6000 MWe Nuclear Power Plant at Mithi Virdi, District Bhavnagar, Gujarat by Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) vide order in F 11-23 /2014-IA- III dated March 3, 2015. The case-appeal in the National Green Tribunal at Western Bench at Pune is filed by Shaktisinh Gohil, Sarpanch of Jasapara; Hajabhai Dihora of Mithi Virdi; Jagrutiben Gohil of Jasapara; Krishnakant and Rohit Prajapati activist of the Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti. The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has issued a notice to the MoEF&CC, Gujarat Pollution Control Board, Gujarat Coastal Zone Management Authority, Atomic Energy Regulatory Board and Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) and case is kept for hearing on August 20, 2015. Appeal No. 23 of 2015 (WZ) is filed, a...

Justice for Zubeen Garg: Fans persist as investigations continue in India and Singapore

By Nava Thakuria* Even a month after the death of Assam’s cultural icon Zubeen Garg in Singapore under mysterious circumstances, thousands of his fans and admirers across eastern India continue their campaign for “ JusticeForZubeenGarg .” A large digital campaign has gained momentum, with over two million social media users from around the world demanding legal action against those allegedly responsible. Although the Assam government has set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT), which has arrested seven people, and a judicial commission headed by Justice Soumitra Saikia of the Gauhati High Court to oversee the probe, public pressure for justice remains strong.

What happens when cricket is turned into 'dharmayudh' between India and others

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* India ‘lost’ the World Cup. Winning or losing is part of the game, but what happens when the game becomes part of the political propaganda and the audiences are not sports lovers but fans who hate others? An Uttar Pradesh daily gave a headline for the final game as ‘dharmyudh’. The game of cricket is being used for political purpose. As cricket is a powerful business in the country, every non-playing dignitary in the game earns much bigger sum than the player.

New RTI draft rules inspired by citizen-unfriendly, overtly bureaucratic approach

By Venkatesh Nayak* The Department of Personnel and Training , Government of India has invited comments on a new set of Draft Rules (available in English only) to implement The Right to Information Act, 2005 . The RTI Rules were last amended in 2012 after a long period of consultation with various stakeholders. The Government’s move to put the draft RTI Rules out for people’s comments and suggestions for change is a welcome continuation of the tradition of public consultation. Positive aspects of the Draft RTI Rules While 60-65% of the Draft RTI Rules repeat the content of the 2012 RTI Rules, some new aspects deserve appreciation as they clarify the manner of implementation of key provisions of the RTI Act. These are: Provisions for dealing with non-compliance of the orders and directives of the Central Information Commission (CIC) by public authorities- this was missing in the 2012 RTI Rules. Non-compliance is increasingly becoming a major problem- two of my non-compliance cases are...

Adani Group declares it will "self-finance" Australian coal mining project: Traditional group registers fresh opposition

By A Representative The controversial Adani Group's Carmichael coal mine and rail project in Queensland, Australia, will be "100% financed" through the Group’s own resources, Adani, Mining CEO Lucas Dow has said. A South Asia Times, Melbourne, report has quoted Dow as saying in Queensland, “We have already invested $3.3 billion in Adani’s Australian businesses, which is a clear demonstration of our capacity to deliver a financing solution for the revised scope of the mine and rail project." Dow Pointing out that "the project stacks up both environmentally and financially", he added, "Today’s announcement removes any doubt as to the project stacking up financially... The Carmichael Project will deliver more than 1,500 direct jobs on the mine and rail projects during the initial ramp-up and construction phase, and will support thousands more indirect jobs, all of which will benefit regional Queensland communities.” The project faces fierce opposition ...

Urgent need to study cause of large number of natural deaths in Gulf countries

By Venkatesh Nayak* According to data tabled in Parliament in April 2018, there are 87.76 lakh (8.77 million) Indians in six Gulf countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While replying to an Unstarred Question (#6091) raised in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister of State for External Affairs said, during the first half of this financial year alone (between April-September 2018), blue-collared Indian workers in these countries had remitted USD 33.47 Billion back home. Not much is known about the human cost of such earnings which swell up the country’s forex reserves quietly. My recent RTI intervention and research of proceedings in Parliament has revealed that between 2012 and mid-2018 more than 24,570 Indian Workers died in these Gulf countries. This works out to an average of more than 10 deaths per day. For every US$ 1 Billion they remitted to India during the same period there were at least 117 deaths of Indian Workers in Gulf ...

46% retailers don't know non-woven bags offered aren't eco-friendly alternative: Study

By A Representative A new study 'Environmental illusion: The non-woven bag' by the Delhi-based advocacy organisation Toxics Link, has sought to bust the myth that non-woven (NW) bags are an eco-friendly alternative to plastic bags. The study reveals that they are nothing but polypropylene (a form of plastic).

Neglected dimension: Important linkages of social relationships, values to climate change

By Bharat Dogra A very important but neglected dimension of the efforts to resolve climate change and related serious environmental problems concerns the social values and relationships among people. To bring out the significance of this neglected aspect let us examine the response of two different types of societies. First, let us try to compare a society in which family and community ties are strong and close with another society where these are weak, where there is strong individualism and a very high number of single person households or units. In the first society there is more sharing of resources and facilities, so that this society tends to consume less (to meet needs such as housing and various gadgets). In addition there is much greater possibility in the first society to mobilize people for tasks like greening of community places or even household spaces. When it comes to tasks relating to climate change adaptation, it is the societies with close social relationships wh...

Search This Blog