Observance of Poshan Maah; Nutri garden set up at Hailakandi

Sept.10: As part of the ongoing Poshan Maah, promotion of nutri gardens are being taken up at Anganwadi centres and community land across the district. Deputy Commissioner, Hailakandi, Megh Nidhi Dahal formally inaugurated a nutri garden at Bahadurpur Anganwadi Centre No.189 on Thursday in the presence of District Social Welfare Officer, Jyotirmoy Daimary and other officials of concerned departments.

Dahal also sowed seeds in a plot of land at Bahadurpur Anganwadi Centre under ICDS Project, Hailakandi.

Daimary said the programme under the theme ‘Rog Niramoy Vhatika’ will be carried out in selected 50 Anganwadi centres and is part of a large-scale programme on addressing undernutrition, anemia, stunting, and wasting in the district. “Our aim is to make Hailakandi malnutrition-free. The project is targeted at lactating mothers, pregnant women, under-five children, and adolescent girls,” said Daimary, adding, “Nutri garden is one of the strategies to improve the dietary diversity of rural communities in Hailakandi district.” In nutri gardens, the major focus is on nutrition, and thus, planning is essential, said Daimary.

District Coordinator, Poshan, Rajat Chakraborty said the concept of a nutri-garden, similar to a kitchen garden, is a cost-effective model for growing nutrient-rich crops for personal as well as community consumption to promote good health and well-being. “This helps tackle both under-nutrition and over-nutrition by adopting a sustainable life cycle approach,” added Chakraborty.

Seeds of carrot, tomatoes, chilli, orange, brinjal, lemon, coriander leaf, spinach etc will be sowed in the 50 identified Anganwadi centres and community land. The programme that began on Thursday will continue till September 27. Social Welfare Department is the nodal department with Agriculture, KVK and ASRLM being the partner departments.

According to the 2015-16 National Family Health Survey, 47.2% of the women of reproductive age in Hailakandi were anaemic. The district, thus, has the most anaemic children below 5 years, adolescents and women of reproductive age in Assam. About 32.5% of the children aged below five in Hailakandi are underweight. The average figure for Assam is 30%.