Far from the madding crowd..

As per an article about Food and Nutrition in India in the United Nations Food Programme published in 2016, our country is home to over one third of the world's stunted (chronically malnourished) children. Around 38.7 per cent children under five years of age fall in this category. These statistics propelled three Fellows to work on malnourishment in their home states of Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Gujarat.

Making 'Amrit' for everyone

During his visits to the crèches in Tilonia run by Barefoot College, Rajasthan, 22-year-old Bidyapathi Ray observed that the crèche workers fed the children an indigenous food mix called amritchuran. A nutritional mix of wheat grains, roasted Bengal gram, jaggery, peanuts and sesame seeds was used in the village for over 30 years to improve the health of infants, children and anemic women. Sexagenarian Dhapu Mali vouched for it: "When my daughter was born, she was severely ill and weak. The doctor said she may not survive. I fed her amritchuran and she was fit within days."

"Ex-SBI fellow, Dr Monalisa Padhee had administered amritchuran to anemic women and saw an average increase of 2-3gm/dL in the haemoglobin level," says Ray. "Barefoot College then trained women to make it at home, but I found that making the mix was not the priority for homemakers. So my project was setting up a large-scale amritchuran production unit to ensure regular supply and provide livelihood to the women."

A chemical engineer from Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology in Nagpur, Ray standardised a process to make amritchuran, formed a women's-based social enterprise and trained women in the production of the powder using electronic machinery such as grinders and mixers for the different ingredients, and measurement cylinders and jars to mix the ingredients in the right proportions. He explained the ratios involved and proportions of each ingredient required to make a kilo of amritchuran.

"We also did a market survey on the demand and pricing, the results were encouraging. The production unit is up and ready, and activities related to food licensing, packaging and marketing are underway," added Ray.

Amritchuran is a now a brand and the Tilonia unit produces 300 kg of it every month — enough for the village and some surrounding ones. It is sold for Rs 200 per kg and distributed by Bidyapathi to three or four surrounding villages.

Helping anganwadis feed correctly

As per a February 2017 report, out of 1,082 children in the 11 aganwadis of Kaparada, Gujarat, Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) found that 22 are moderately malnourished and four are severely malnourished cases. But when 22-year-old Shravani Ladkat visited an anganwadi in Kaprada to gather anthropometric measurements (height, weight) of 15 children under the age of six, she observed that five of them were severely malnourished and four moderately so.

The Pune resident's Masters in Nutrition Science degree helped her study why despite various schemes implemented by ICDS, cases of malnutrition are much higher than the available statistics. "I started by asking anganwadi workers about the problems they faced," says Ladkat. "They informed me that the children were not regular due to lack of infrastructure and irregular attendance by anganwadi workers. There were also problems caused by lack of funding. We discussed these problems with Valsad's District Collector and Magistrate Ramya Mohan and she regularised the anganwadis' work by reviewing their attendance and speaking to them. Then, we got toys and painted the anganwadis to entice the children to come regularly."

Since anganwadi workers play an important role in implementation of the ICDS, Ladkat held awareness sessions with them to explain the importance of a diet for children. "I ran surveys on locally available material and studied on the shortcomings of the nutrition of the meal provided by the anganwadis. Their meals were oily, almost exclusively comprising just rice and dal — vegetables or grains such as wheat, ragi and barley were rarely included. The diet also lacked a balance of carbohydrates, fat and proteins. Then I prepared the diet charts and menus that include nutritionally rich dals, and locally available vegetables and fruits. We plan to include ragi balls made by self-help groups that work with the NGO BAIF (Bharatiya Agro Industries Foundation). We will also educated the anganwadi workers on where to buy resources for a balanced diet within their budgets."

Educating tribals out of malnutrition

Ankur Chhabra is a finance consultant based in Walwant village in the Palghar district of Maharashtra. Knowing that one quarter of all undernourished people on the planet live in India, the 28-year-old set out to provide health literacy and malnutrition awareness for school children.

"After working as a financial consultant, I worked as a research assistant in a public health study conducted in Ghasera village in Haryana," says Chhabra. "This got me interested in the public health sector and I wanted to implement a developmental initiative. I chose Palghar district since the issue of malnutrition is particularly grave here," said Chhabra.

He observed that most children in Walwant village had stunted growth and were underweight. "There was high correlation between factors such as lack of nutrition, improper meal intake and irregular meal timings, child marriage, migration and malnutrition," Chhabra said. Over six months, he organised medical camps to check anthropometric measurements in a tribal school, and found that on an average, 30 out of 100 students were underweight and stunted.

Chabbra also conducted awareness sessions for the school students and mothers using audio-visual tools about balanced diets and nutrition, and over the next six months, he will work on cultivating and educating households about kitchen gardens.