Nearly half of all deaths in children under 5 are attributable to undernutrition. This translates into the unnecessary loss of about 3 million young lives a year. Undernutrition puts children at greater risk of dying from common infections, increases the frequency and severity of such infections, and contributes to delayed recovery.
India has one of the highest number of undernourished children in the world, almost 50% of children below 3 are malnourished.
Government of India recorded 18,486 deaths caused by malnourishment in children between 0-6 in 2011 in Maharashtra alone.
Yet the solution is very practical and incorporates a multipronged approach of supplementary feeding, medical provision and education and capacity building of the communities.
The Egg DOT (Directly Observed Therapy) in partnership with Ojus Medical Institute screened over 8000 children across 52 tribal villages in Maharashtra and provided nutritional support to 576 children across these villages through 81 trained health workers. These health workers worked with the Anganwadis to identify severely malnourished children under 6; and provided nutritional supplements such as eff, soya milk and ghee.
The care givers were educated on health, nutrition and hygiene practices to prevent children from slipping into severe malnourishment. The project successfully ended in June 2015 after five phases delivering over 85% effectiveness.
Anushka Aadole was just three years old, when she got enrolled in the project. She was staying with her parents at Take Ghoti village located around 5 kms away from Igatpuri Taluka in Nasik District of Maharashtra. Her mother Manjula was looking after her. Her birth weight was 1.7 kg and she was not growing as per expectations because of sever malnourishment (SAM condition).
She was started on supplements at three years with initial weight of 9.5 kgs and was continued on same until she could get in to moderate malnutrition (MAM condition) and her weight was gained by 1.9 kgs in two years.