Maharashtra: Melghat gets adopted; brings fresh hope for children of undernourished region

Bringing fresh hope for children of states' undernourished and long-neglected Melghat region, Britannia Nutrition Foundation (BNF) has adopted the tribal belt as part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR) inititaite for the year 2016-17.

Further, to ensure that the programme is a success, doctors from Wadia hospital have also consented to provide offsite and onsite medical support to make the programme a success.

The BNF has repotedly signed a memorandum of understanding with the state government to implement a three-phase project that in collaboraction with government's Integrated Child Dveleopment Services programme.

According to sources all the three phases will be six months long taking the entire programme lentgh to 18 months. In the first phase of the programme, in the first three months , Anganwadi workers in Melghat will be provided with hard copies of formats to record legacy data of children aged below five years. This legacy data will comprise children's birthweight and latest recorded weight. All this data will then be uploaded on a specialy designed software. In next three months, experts will analyse the data and work on the nutritionol requirements of each child living in the region.

In phase two, the foundation along with Anganwadi workers will work with the health machinery in the district to ensure that all SAM children recieve the prescribed amount of nutrition. For nex six months there will be a complete monitoring of the nutrition status of all the SAM hildren by the BNF and health workers.

In the third phase — which will start on completion of one year — the BNF will again access the nutritional measures of the children who were part of the project. There height and weight gain will also be checked. "If after the third phase any child is still found with any kind of shortfall, the foundation and the health workers will work on rectifying it," said a senior government officer.

The plan, however, will also support children with moderate malnutrition. Besides this, the foundation will also enagge with the district administration in promoting , through use of technology and modern management practices, the effiectinve implmenetaion of ongoing government programmes.

Melghat in Amravati district has been in the news for its high infant mortality rate. In 2014, 306 children died due to malnutrition. In 2015, chief minister Devendra fadnavis, asked the ministries of tribal welfare, finance, health, and the department of information and technology to come up with a roadmap, which includes setting up of telecommunication towers in the tribal belt.