Poultry – A big contributor in bringing down malnutrition by 40% in naxal hit Kondagaon.

As per official claims there is 40% reduction in malnutrition cases  in children in Kondagaon, a small tribal- dominated and Naxal- affected district in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar division.

Project ‘Nangat Pila’ meaning healthy child, helped to curb the malnutrition and provided livelihood to women in the district.

Good thing about this project is all the efforts were made in the period of Covid
pandemic.

Under the new project, the district administration beside other nutritious foods also decided to include Kodo, a nutrition-rich millet, in the diet of children and ensure sufficient availability of eggs.

With the support of district administration a poultry farm was established with a production capacity of 4,000 eggs per day, by women farmer’s producer company, named ‘Udan’, run and managed by SHGs.

Eggs from this poultry farm were distributed among children through anganwadis.

Anganwadi workers, who are considered to be backbone of this project, served the children of different age groups with eggs, sprouts, jaggery, chickpeas, lentils, rice, vegetables and pickles in their diet.

During the Covid-induced lockdown, the anganwadi workers used to boil eggs in their houses and distribute them to the malnourished children at their homes.

The SHGs operating ‘Udan’ have so far earned Rs 9.29 lakh by supplying eggs to anganwadi centres and private vendors.

Udan has also provided livelihood to 33 women and is also helping the district administration in tackling malnutrition.

The district administration has also sanctioned the construction of four more similar poultry sheds.

Anti-malnutrition drive in the district helped to bring down the numbers of malnourished children from 19,572 in 2019 to 11,440 in July this year, Kondgaon Collector Pushpendra Kumar Meena told PTI.

Efforts put by government, district administration , anganwadi workers and Udan are really commendable. This kind of projects not only help to curb malnutrition but also help to generate employment.