A two year old girl child, Mafia got in contact of intermittent diarrhea and fever because of unknown reasons. This continued for a year long time. During the screening conducted by the state government, this girl child from Machadi village of Karauli district was found undernourished and suffering from malnutrition. She received the proper treatment at home formal nutrition and is living a normal life now.
This could be made possible under state government’s initiative against SAM (Severe Acute Malnutrition), named POSHAN (Proactive and Optimum care of children, through Social Household Approach for Nutrition). Mafia was one of the children who got benefitted from this endeavour of state government.
This Community Based Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) has been undertaken by the state department of health and family welfare and UNICEF. Many state level health bodies like, ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activists), NRHM (National Rural Health Mission), ANMs (Auxiliary Nurse Mid Wives) and female health workers at village level.
Sabina, mother of 3 year old Mafia says, “Earlier I used to frequently take Mafia to a doctor as she used to fall ill, but after ANM and ASHA sisters treated her for nutrition, she is fine; in the last year, we hardly went to a doctor.”
She was asked about the changes in diet and if any special food was given to her, to which she says, “Nothing special; I give her what we eat and no costly syrup or any food supplement is given to the child, so there is no extra cost. Health workers visit homes of malnourished children to check whether they are fine or have slipped back to malnutrition.”
Similar was with 3 year old Nitin, who was suffering from malnutrition and thus was fed health supplements. His appetite improved and the related medical expenses have slowed down.
With progressive time, this programme will include seven other districts, including Bharatpur, Jhalawar, Bikaner, Chottorgarh, Swai Madhopur and Bhilwara.
Mr. Jain also said, “A total of 16500 children — 13000 SAM children in the existing 13 districts and 3500 from new districts — will be treated for malnutrition”.
