Anganwadi workers to monitor kids in 5 dists on malnutrition

Chennai: This summer, don’t be surprised if a government official with a tablet PC knocks on your door to measure your child’s height and weight.
Anganwadi workers in the state, who used to monitor children from poor socio-economic backgrounds, will from April check nutrition levels of all children in the 0-6 age group in five districts, including Chennai.

The Centre recently asked the state to appoint the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) as nutrition monitor. Each anganwadi worker will be assigned around 1,000 households. They will visit the house at least once in six months to check the child’s nutrition progress.

Workers will be given portable devices to allow the Centre to map their work and enable prompt local interventions. All parameters are fed into a software, accessed by a supervisor in Delhi who can interact with the anganwadi worker and the beneficiary to guide them on improving nutrition intake. The data is fed into the central server and a dashboard can be accessed by state officials. The software, officials said, will allow field workers to upload dietary intake and health updates of children and supply of foodgrains and supplementary nutrition daily.

Monitoring ICDS implementation has been a challenge as data on nutrition supply is currently received from states and Union Territories in periodic reports.

The project is part of the National Nutrition Mission to bring down stunting of children in the 0-6 age group from 38.4% to 25% by 2022. Social welfare officials have held two rounds of meetings to discuss implementation.

“In the first phase we will focus on stunting and wasting, the following year,” said an ICDS official. Stunting, or low height for age, usually affects children below two years and is caused by insufficient nutrients intake and frequent infections. Wasting, or low weight for height, affects children below 5 years and is the leading cause of child mortality.

The initiative will first rollout in Chennai, Ariyalur, Dindigul and Villupuram and Ooty where at least two of every three children below 5 years are wasted and three of 10 are stunted. Tamil Nadu, according to a report by the Centre, has the least number of districts in the red for poor nutrition profiles after Kerala which has three. Uttar Pradesh has 64 such districts, the highest.

Activists say the project looks rosy, but remain sceptical on implementation. “In rural areas, there is a close rapport between anganwadi workers, village health nurses and the community. I don’t know how open urban households will be to a government official knocking on their doors,” said Dr B Subhashri of Rural Women’s Social Education Centre. She also pointed at the vacancies in the state’s 54,439 ICDS centers.

Officials said staff recruitment was on and around 80% of vacancies filled.