Bhopal: In the competition issued by the Central Government, Sheopur stood second in the efforts made for proper nutrition in the country. The nutrition of children is being closely monitored under the Chief Minister Child Health Promotion Scheme of the Women and Child Development Department. The nutritional status of every child is being known every month, and in case of any adverse situation, nutritional management is being done in a planned manner.
According to the data of base line survey and end line survey of various institutions working in Sheopur district, the number of malnourished children in the district has reduced by 90 percent in the last 10 years. There has been an increase of 80 percent in the number of people taking advantage of Anganwadi services in the last years. The prevalence of Poshanwadi has increased in 35 percent of the houses. Dietary diversity of women and children has increased by 30 percent. While 906 children were severely malnourished in 2020, now there are only 122 children in this category.
As part of the efforts made by the Women and Child Development Department for good nutrition, first of all the capacity of Anganwadi workers was increased. Regular training was given on identifying malnutrition easily, breaking the cycle of malnutrition, dietary diversity, food and nutrition, hygiene behavior change, making different types of child-friendly diets from coarse grains and nutritional supplements, etc., as a result of which Anganwadi workers helped in rural areas. Worked on public awareness by counseling men and women. Now there are master trainers in many Anganwadi centers of the district.
If we compare the data released in National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4) for the year 2005-06 with the data released in NFHS-5 for the year 2020-21, then in Madhya Pradesh there is 40% in case of underweight and 46% in case of thinness and very severe A reduction of up to 48% has been observed in leanness. According to the nutrition tracker of the Central Government, in the year 2023-24, 5.50 lakh children in the state were identified in the underweight category. Similarly, in Sheopur the number of underweight children under five years of age has decreased by 37.7%.
