MALNUTRITION: India: ‘Include child malnutrition in poll manifestoes’

Published: Monday, Oct 29, 2012, 15:35 IST  By Smitha R | Place: Ahmedabad | Agency: DNA Free laptops, cheap homes, free food and electricity may eventually find their way into the election manifestoes of the BJP, Congress, GPP and other parties contesting the upcoming assembly polls in the state. But some villages in the state apparently want another, much more important and pressing matter to be included in the parties’ manifestoes — malnutrition among children. Some 422 villages in Ahmedabad, Bharuch, Sabarkantha and Surendranagar districts have written a letter to all the major parties in this regard. The letter, a copy of which is with DNA, asks the parties to help the villages fight malnutrition and make it an important part of their poll manifestoes. The letter from each village is signed by the sarpanch, village elders and others.  The issue of malnutrition came to the fore when an NGO, ‘Save The Children’, carried out a nutrition week campaign in 760 villages of the four districts. It was after the campaign that the village elders decided to write to the parties about inclusion of the same in their election manifestoes. Rajiv Rathod of Isarvada village in Idar municipality of Sabarkantha district was one of the villagers to sign the letter sent to the parties. He said that they realised that the issue of malnutrition was important after the NGO carried out the campaign. “Earlier our demands from political parties would include better roads, electricity and cleanliness. This time we want them to seriously consider the issue of malnutrition as well,” said Rathod.  Babubhai Vaghela, a former member of the panchayat of Kadolar village in Bavla taluka (Ahmedabad district) said that they had talked to the parties about education and dropout rate. “But after a malnutrition survey, it was found that 44 children in the village in the age group of 1 to 5 years figured in the ‘yellow category’. Hence we decided to write to the parties to include the problem of malnutrition too in their manifestoes,” said Vaghela. Children who fall in the ‘yellow category’ are not extremely malnourished but are believed to be at the risk of malnourishment. Rajan Mohanty, state program manager of ‘Save The Children’, said that they had told the villagers that the problem needs to be addressed at different levels. “We told the people to address the issue at both individual and community levels. For instance, ensuring that children and elders wash their hands properly is an effort at the individual level. At the community level, they can look at the nutritional services available at anganwadis,” said Mohanty. However, he said that there are several other needs that only the government can meet in the fight against malnutrition. Interestingly, most political parties said they were ignorant of any such letter. “So far we have not received the letter. However, our party has already announced that if voted to power, we will provide assistance of Rs800 per month per household as ‘Annapurna Aaahar Package’. This is part of our promise and we stand by that,” a spokesperson from the GPP said. Jagdish Bhavsar, media cell-in-charge of the BJP, said that they are unaware of such a letter but the BJP govt was committed to the cause and had already launched many schemes to tackle the problem. The Congress too pleaded ignorance about receiving any such letter. Interestingly, some of the letters were sent by registered AD post and there is proof to show that the offices of political parties had indeed received these letters.