About the Nutrition Mission

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The Rajmata Jijau Mother-Child Health & Nutrition Mission was constituted by Government Resolution dated 11th March 2005 issued by the Department of Women & Child Development, Government of Maharashtra. The Mission has as its primary objective the reduction of grade-III and grade-IV malnutrition in children in the 0-6 age group in the State of Maharashtra. Complementary objectives include ensuring provision of neo-natal care to pregnant women, new-born care and special focus on health, nutrition and complete immunisation of children in the 0-3 age group (in effect, focus on the entire period from the stage of conception to the time the child is three years old), reduction of grade-I & grade-II malnutrition in the State, assisting the Public Health Department in provision of training for implementation of the IMNCI and home-based new-born care programmes on a pilot basis in selected primary health centres (PHCs), focus on the education of adolescent girls to reduce the incidence of child marriages and promote spacing between children, and finally, making efforts to bring about social transformation through participation of the community so that the responsibility for nutrition management is transferred from the government to civil society.

The following activities have been undertaken since the establishment of the Mission:

1. The Mission commenced operation at Aurangabad from 7th April 2005.
    
2. A State Level Workshop for the five districts involved in Phase-I of the Mission activities was held on 28-29 April 2005 at Aurangabad. Issues to be focused on by the ICDS and Public Health Department were communicated to the field level functionaries in the five districts.
    
3. Divisional Level Workshops to motivate and sensitise the ICDS and Health staff upto the level of anganwadi supervisors and medical officers were held for Konkan, Nashik and Amravati Divisions in June 2005.
    
4. To finalise policy action points, a meeting was held in the Department of Women & Child Development on 19th July 2005 in which secretaries of the concerned departments like Family Welfare, Tribal Development, etc. participated. A number of points for action were drawn up at this meeting.
    
5. The Officers of the Mission visited the five districts between August and October 2005 and workshops of the concerned functionaries of the Public Health & ICDS departments were held in these districts. During these workshops, the field level reality observed by the Mission members during the visits was brought to the notice of the concerned district officials to enable them to rectify and improve their performance.
    
6. Proposals were sent to Government in October 2005 for allocation of funds in respect of the following:

1. treatment of children suffering from congenital ailments
    
2. provision of community growth charts
    
3. establishing units for testing blood for sickle cell anaemia
    
4. provision of deworming tablets in all Anganwadis in the five districts twice a year
    
5. provision of hypothermia prevention kits
    
6. preparation of household kitchen gardens for growing vegetables

7. A programme for training of trainers (ToT) in the five districts was also launched in December 2005, and as many as 185 supervisors / child development project officers / medical officers were trained in December 2005 and January 2006. The training included lectures on motivation and communication skills, provision of neo-natal, peri-natal and post-natal care, breast-feeding and complementary feeding, important nutrition information including the role of micronutrients, immunisation, coordination & monitoring at the district level and below, etc. Subsequently these trainees have conducted training sessions for functionaries in every PHC in these districts during January-February 2006.
    
8. Meetings of the Mission Steering Committee (under the Chairmanship of the Chief Minister), Mission Implementation & Monitoring Committee (under the Chairmanship of the Minister for Women & Child Development) and Mission Advisory Committee (under the Chairmanship of the Chief Secretary) were held in February-March 2006 to assess the progress in the five districts of the first phase and to decide on policy measures for effectively tackling malnutrition in the State. Mission Advisory Committee meeting was also held on 31st October 2006 and Mission Implementation & Monitoring Committee meeting on 23rd November 2006.
    
9. With effect from 1st April 2006, 10 more districts viz. Gondia, Nagpur, Chandrapur, Yeotmal, Dhule, Jalgaon, Ahmednagar, Pune, Nanded and Raigad have been included in the scope of the Mission activities. Six ToT programme have been held between April & July 2006 for these districts. Sensitisation and motivation of the functionaries of the ICDS & Health department in all these the ten districts has been carried out.
    
10. An analysis of the figures in the accompanying table shows that there has been an increase in the number of children surveyed and weighed in the five districts. Reduction in grade-III & grade-IV i.e. severe malnutrition has been observed in some of the districts. Efforts are on to ensure that this reduction continues on a sustainable basis through the effective implementation of the various programmes of both ICDS & Health departments, with the assistance of related departments like the Tribal Development Department.
     
11. A campaign (on the lines of Pulse Polio Immunisation) was taken up to administer deworming medicines to all the 0-6 age group children in five tribal districts of Nandurbar, Nashik, Thane, Amravati and Gadchiroli on the 20th June 2006 itself. A similar campaign was taken up in those districts to administer the dose of vitamin A to all the children in 9 months-5 years age group on the 27th June 2006 itself. The objective of this twin campaign was to improve the digestion of the target group children by deworming them and by administering Vitamin A dose to these children to develop resistance against diseases and thereby reducing under-nutrition.
     
12. Given that malnutrition has its roots in socio-economic factors, apart from the factor of service delivery by government agencies, it is expected that efforts initiated by the Mission in various districts will show results over a period of time. A sense of motivation and commitment is sought to be developed in all field level functionaries, particularly those at the cutting edge like anganwadi workers, anganwadi supervisors, health workers, ANMs and medical officers. Through the involvement of the government machinery and community-based organizations, the Mission hopes to get across the basic information relating to health, nutrition and hygiene down to the community and family in each and every village. To involve other sections of society in the fight against malnutrition, the Bhavishya Alliance has also started functioning in Maharashtra. This alliance of government, the corporate sector and NGOs/CBOs will seek to develop initiatives which are being implemented on a pilot basis from January 2007 onwards.
     

  ANALYSIS OF SURVEY/WEIGHING EFFICIENCY IN RESPECT OF 0-6 AGE GROUP CHILDREN
IN FIVE PHASE I TRIBAL DISTRICTS

APRIL 2005 TO AUGUST 2006

 

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20 March, 2009