Page 36 - Mann Ki Baat - English, August 2022
P. 36

Bongaigaon Fights Malnutrition with

                        'Project Sampoorna'



            A special initiative launched   of my kid. The ‘Buddy Mother’
        by the District Administration     gave me advice on taking care of
        of  Bongaigaon,   Assam    has     the child. This helped to improve
        drawn the attention of many.       my child’s health.”
        Launched in September 2020,           Sujala Sarkar, an Anganwadi
        ‘Project Sampoorna’ aims to        Worker, informed, “For three
        combat malnutrition. Under this    months, we Anganwadi Workers,
        project, 2,416 children have been   and the buddy mothers used to
        identified and after being given   measure the height and weight
        the right support, more than 90%   of selected children. Nutritious
        of  these  children  showed  signs   food, including milk and eggs,
        of improved health in just one     was provided to them every
        year.  The   project                          week by the district
        adopted a unique                              administration  and
        way to engage a                               the social welfare
        ‘Buddy Mother’ (the                           department.     We
        mother of a healthy                           also     suggested
        child) to give  advice                        the mothers to eat
        to the mother of a                            nutritious foods which
        child suffering from                          are easily available
        malnutrition.   The                           and not very  costly.
        ‘Buddy Mother’ visits                         This process showed
        the   other  mother                           results and the health
        once   a   week   to                          of the kids started
        discuss the growth                 improving.”
        of the child, healthy food habits,    Suniti   Das   Singha,    a
        and other ways to take care of     ‘Buddy Mother’, also shared
        the child. Anganwadi workers are   her experience, “I am a 'Buddy
        also engaged to give advice to     Mother' of 2020 of the Sampoorna
        the mothers.                       scheme. The Anganwadi worker
            Our   Doordarshan    team      informed us that Deepika’s child
        talked to the stakeholders of this   was not very healthy, unlike my
        project to know more.              child. So as assigned, I used to
            Deepika Ray, mother of the     tell Deepika how to take care
        child suffering from malnutrition,   of the child’s health in addition
        said, “I got immense support       to  the  support  provided  by
        through   ‘Project  Sampoorna’.    the district administration and
        Anganwadi    worker  and   the     social   welfare   department,
        'Buddy Mother' used to visit me    which helped a lot and her child
        and my son every week and          became healthy very soon.”
        measured the weight and height


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