Bankura: No. of malnourished kids dips to 654 from 1,627 in 8 months

kolkata: The Bankura district administration has achieved astounding success in bringing down the number of SAM (Severe Acute Malnutrition ) children in the district which has gone up by leaps and bounds since the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic. In July 2021, the district had identified 1,627 SAM children but managed to bring it down to 654 in April 2022 (in 8 months).

Operation of normal activities of the Anganwadi Centres (AWCs) got hampered and the impact fell directly upon the children. After resumption of taking weight of children in the age group of 6 months to 6 years, in July-2021, we identified 1627 SAM children through weight management drive. This figure was 760 in February 2020, a month before COVID hit the state.

"Our multi dimensional intervention in this area came through the launch of an innovative and unique scheme called "Operation Pusti" that was officially launched by Minister for Women and Child Development Shashi Panja on November 24 last year in 23 blocks of the district," K. Radhika Aiyar, District Magistrate, Bankura said.

The key features of Operation Pusti includes feeding every severely underweight child with one egg/day and 1kg NUTRIMIX packet per month through the AWCs, providing chappals to all these children to prevent diseases, all the families of these children received water filter-safe drinking water, regular health check up has been done by the specialised doctors, provision of piped water through Jal Swapno scheme to the households of these children and also at that Anganwadi centres, creating Nutri Garden at the house of these families where land is available and also at the AWC."Supplementary income generation scheme has also been adopted to uplift the economic status of these families," a senior official of the district administration said.

Besides, it was ensured that these families get food grains through ration free-of-cost

In November 21, the number of SAM children was 1161, in December it decreased to 1055, in January 2022 it came down to 927 and dipped further in February and March where the figures were 837 and 745 respectively.

"We are not complacent. Our goal is to reduce this figure to a bare minimum and all the stakeholders are trying hard to achieve the target," the official added.