Guwahati, Sep 8: Consumption of nutritious foods is a major impetus for sustenance. It is a fundamental requirement to stimulate growth and maintain a healthy lifestyle. But, not many are fortunate enough to meet the basic nutritional requisite due to various pre-existing socio-economic factors.
It is mostly women and children who fall prey to malnutrition as they remain barred from consuming adequate nutritious food, which is required for holistic development.
India has been one of the nations that is battling to mitigate malnutrition despite having achieved 75 years of independence. As per the Women and Child Development Ministry, it has been estimated that over 33 lakh children were found to be malnourished in 2021, and anaemia in women showed a sharp spike in cases at 57.2% and 52.2%, respectively.
However, visionary projects like Mission Sampoorna have carved out a niche to eradicate malnutrition and fulfill Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of Kuposhan Mukt Bharat ( Freedom from Malnutrition) by 2022.
Launched initially as a pilot project in the Bongaigaon district of Assam, Mission Sampoorna has been able to reduce malnutrition in children using zero economic investment.
Spearheaded by Dr. M.S. Lakshmipriya, the former District Commissioner of Bongaigaon, the program has prevented over 1200 children from becoming malnourished over the last year. The project is in tandem with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and those set by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres at the Food Systems Summit.
The mission was started by identifying 1,116 Anganwadis in Bongaigaon with a total of 63,041 children below five. It was revealed that a total of 2,416 malnourished children were found out of which 246 cases were of Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) and 2,170 instances were of Moderate Acute Malnutrition (MAM).
To monitor and update data, Google livesheets and social media applications like WhatsApp were used to keep a track. Even, colour-coded growth charts were put up in each Anganwadi Centres to assess the SAM and MAM children.
In addition, mother of a healthy child of the Anganwadi Centres (AWC) were also identified and paired her with the target mother and tagged the pair as 'Buddy Mothers.' The Buddy mothers shared similar socio-economic backgrounds and were usually neighbours.
The pairs were given diet charts to indicate the daily food in take of their children and held discussions on local practices of nutrition, every Tuesdays at the respective Anganwadi Centre.
Though, the project was implemented yet proper execution could be not be made as the mother of the children were not financially empowered. Therefore, the women were enrolled in the Self Help Groups(SHGs) under the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM).
It was found that, by the end of three months, 74.3% of mothers were enrolled in SHGs; by the end of six months, enrollment went up to 75.6% and by the end of a year, it was 90%. On the other hand, for the first three months, 100 millilitres of milk and an egg were given to the 2, 416 kids on alternate days so that their mothers could settle into their new employment.
After three months of Mission Sampoorna's operation, out of 246 SAM children, 27 (11%) remained SAM while 28 (11.4%) improved to MAM, and an astounding 189 (76.8%) returned to normal. Out of 2,170 MAM youngsters, 12 (0.6%) regressed to SAM, 132 (6.08%) remained MAM, and an astounding 2,015 (92.8%) became normal.
Distribution of milk and eggs were stopped after three months of implementation. But, Buddy Mothers Model and Women Empowerment Model were still on the run and this resulted into 84.96% of SAM children and 97.3% MAM children return to normalcy.
Gradually, by September 2021, Mission Sampoorna, helped 92.3% SAM and 98.9% MAM children return to normalcy, curbing malnutrition from the district of Bongaigaon.
Moreover, children who had not improved were checked and treated by doctors under the Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK). In total the mission has been successful in bringing down 95.6% of malnourished children to normal.
The National Nutrition Mission and the State government has recognised the project in the 'Innovation Category' and awarded with the Prime Minister's Award for Excellence in Public Administration, 2021. Besides, appreciating the effort, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma is planning to launch and propagate the project in entire state.
The initiative is acknowledged as a decentralised, technologically-based paradigm that uses community engagement and women's emancipation as a positive divergence factor for results. Not only these, Mission Sampoorna's effort has been acknowledged by the Prime Minister himself on Mann Ki Baat recently and lauded that the project can be implemented anywhere in the world.