306 children of 33 Districts of 14 Lok Sabha Constituencies in Assam bag healthy child award

way2barak, Sept.19: A total of  306 children of 33 Districts of 14 Lok Sabha Constituencies in Assam  have been awarded healthy child award.

At the  State level, the Healthy Child Award was given away to 10 children on 1st September 2022, on the inaugural function of 5th Rastriya POSHAN MAAH by the Chief Minister of Assam and Minister for Women and Child Development.

Malnutrition among under-five is an important concern all over India. Considering the initiative towards building a healthy nation, Assam shared the goal of “Malnutrition free Assam”. 20 healthy children from Anganwadi Centres were to be awarded as “Healthy Child” prize at the level of Lok Sabha Constituency. Growth monitoring was done all over the State for the measurement of weight and height of children to identify healthy children in age group of 6 months -3 years and 3-5 years and to generate awareness and conduct campaigns for growth measurement of children held from 21st March- 27th March, of POSHAN Pakhwada-2022. Twenty healthy children were identified from each Lok Sabha Constituency covering all the ICDS project from respective district during POSHAN Pakhwada. It is an imperative intervention taken by Chief Minister of Assam aimed to improve nutrition through enhanced social awareness.

The main objective of the healthy child award is:

1) To identify healthy children in age group of 6m-3 years and 3-5 years and to generate awareness   and conduct campaigns for growth measurement of children.

2) To promote a sense of constructive competition among parents for their child’s health and well being, to encourage the parents of healthy children.

3) To sensitize the community on children health and to improve the nutrition of infants/children through increased social awareness such as importance of diet diversity and age appropriate feeding.

4) To mobilize community participation for health and nutritional wellness in the State.

Method for Identifying a healthy child

1. Measuring weight and height/length of children in the target group with weighing scale and stadiometer or infantometer by Anganwadi Worker (AWW)/Helper (AWH).
2. After measuring the weight of the children, healthy children were identified by plotting appropriately in the WHO growth chart.
3. The concerned supervisors/block POSHAN team guided the AWW/AWH in the entire process.
4. The identified healthy children were listed along with their details in the prescribed format.