“National Family Health Survey 2015-16 speaks that 54.6% pregnant women age 15-49 years and 52.4% Non-pregnant women age 15-49 years, whereas 68.9% children of 6 to 59 month are anaemic in the state. Only 23.5% mothers consumed recommended iron folic acid for 100 days or more when they were pregnant, causing high rates of premature birth, low birth weight, and putting newborns at a disadvantage for healthy growth”.
Effective Care and Treatment of Children Suffering from Malnutrition
MPVHA Efforts
MPVHA implemented a project on “Reducing Anaemia and Malnutrition in 23 districts of Madhya Pradesh” in partnership with William J. Clinton Foundation (WJCF). The global health work of WJCF in India is coordinated with the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) and was implemented during the period 2017-2019.
Nutrition project aims to reduce prevalence of anaemia in adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women. It also aims to reduce prevalence of under-weight and stunting among children (42.8% under weight, 42% are stunted and 9.2 are severely malnourished and wasted) by extending hands of government department through strengthening the current IFA supplementation program, increasing knowledge on anaemia amongst frontline workers to enhance operational excellence of a large field force.
Goals and Objectives
The goal of the project was to reduce the proportion of both anaemic adolescent girls and pregnant women by 10 percentage points (from current status of 57% and 60% for adolescent girls and pregnant women, respectively) and to reduce the proportion of underweight and stunted children by 10 percentage points by 2019. To achieve this goal more than 4.5 million children and 2 million pregnant and breastfeeding women were proposed to reach through the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) focused interventions alone. Furthermore, approximately 6.7 million adolescent girls were proposed to reach through the activities focused at strengthening Iron-Folic Supplementation Programmes (IFSPs). The package of intervention was estimated to save lives of approximately 35,400 children in Madhya Pradesh during the project period. Following objectives were set to achieve the goal of the project:
- Bridge supply, design and implementation gaps in anaemia control programmes.
- Improve the nutritional value of Take Home Rations (THR) for children and pregnant women.
- Improve supply chain and distribution systems of the ICDS scheme.
- Improve hygiene and sanitation conditions in areas with high burden of malnutrition.
- Develop the capacity of front-line workers to provide a continuum of care for all forms of under-nutrition, improve young child feeding practices and enhance data reporting systems.