Postcard campaign to combat malnutrition
Bureau,Odishabarta
Providing dietary diversity is crucial during adolescence, especially among girls
Bhubaneswar: In a bid to highlight the issues of malnutrition among adolescent girls in the State, CSOs Atmashakti Trust and its allies Odisha Shramajeebee Manch and Mahila Shramajeebee Manch launched a postcard campaign where 10 thousand postcards from 15 tribal dominated districts have been sent to the Hon’ble Chief Minister in last one month seeking immediate intervention.
The postcards are signed by over 40000 adolescent girls from over 10000 villages in these districts.
In its culminating event, thousands of people from across 88 blocks in these 15 districts of the State joined mass rallies conducted at the block levels, where they submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister through BDOs on the issue.
Adolescent girls in India, especially those residing in tribal regions, are at high nutritional risk and face health issues such as anemia and chronic disorders. The National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-5 data indicates that 66.3% of women aged between 15 to 19 in rural Odisha are anemic. Also, 2,413,262 women aged in this age group are underweight.
Under the Odisha government’s Scheme for Adolescent Girls (SAG), which converged with POSHAN 2.0 in 2021, adolescent girls in the age group of 14 to 18 years should receive 4kgs of Chhatua, 25 pieces of Badam_Raasi, Chikki, and 16 boiled eggs (4 eggs per week) to address their protein and nutritional needs. But unfortunately, this still needs to be implemented. So, the campaign aimed to highlight the issue through public awareness and sought the government’s attention to address malnutrition among adolescent girls in the State.
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