Governor Droupadi Murmu has emphasised on taking collective approach to make Jharkhand a malnutrition-free State. Speaking at a programme to discuss ‘Improving Nutrition Security in Jharkhand’ on Friday, she said that having almost half of the children of the State malnourished at one parameter or the other was not a healthy sign at all.
The programme organised by Vikas Bharti (Bishunpur) and Save the Children, she said that nutrition safety was not only a serious issue, but was also a challenge for modern society. “We will have to hit at the root-causes of it in a collective way. Everyone needs to have awareness about this,” she added.
The programme was organised to disseminate experiences gained by a project called Karuna, which was started in 2012 in Gumla by Vikas Bharti (Bishunpur) to get one Block of the district malnutrition free. The programme tried to take a multi-layered approach and multi-agency involvement including those of the governments to start an all-dimension battle against malnutrition.
Vikas Bharti (Bishunpur) Secretary Ashok Bhagat said on the occasion that the results appeared to be successful, hence the workshop was organised to take it as a tested model to apply across the State to eradicate malnutrition among children. Personnel Department Principal Secretary Nidhi Khare, Social Welfare Director RP Singh, Agriculture Director Jatashankar Choubey, Nutrition Expert of Save the Children (India) Rajesh Khanna and Nutrition Advisor of Save the Children (UK) Emily Keane, Jharkhand State Nutrition Mission Director General Mridula Sinha and many other dignitaries from Vikas Bharti (Bishunpur) and Save the Children were present at the occasion.
The Governor also encouraged the gathering present there at the occasion to include local vegetables and shrubs as much as possible. “Ours is a natural resource abundant State. Nutritious fruits, vegetables and shrubs are available locally. However, they have not been able to intrude in plates, only due to lack of awareness. It is also responsibility of social workers and people from Government working locally to aware people about this,” Murmu added. The programme also saw unveiling a number of booklets about a comprehensive journey of project Karuna, what were done under it, how were they done and how the entire project could be replicated in other parts of the State.
Principal Secretary of Personnel Department Nidhi Khare said that the challenge of malnourished children remained critical with around 40 per cent of the State children still poorly nourished. “However, government has been doing its best to hit it hard, and results have also started appearing. We have started taking collective efforts as far as inter-departmental coordination to combat this problem is concerned, and would try to replicate the experiences gained in Gumla,” said Khare.