Nutrition is an everyday affair

Nutrition and access to healthy food are the rights of all sections of society, however, the needs of the urban poor are complex & multifaceted. The nutritional status of urban slum populations is worse than the rural population. The proposed project will work with households from urban slums & those having young children to improve quality of local diets and improve eating & feeding practices by increasing awareness and including low cost, high nutrition & impact solutions as part of the strategy. 

We need to invest time and effort to nurture this section of our population who will become citizens of tomorrow. Healthy, nurtured children grow up to be healthy and constructive citizens. An investment in their present in an investment in a better future for all of us.  

To combat these issues there is a persistent need to improve dietary diversity, the quality of local diets, increase awareness on healthy eating and child feeding practices as well as overall health and hygiene in urban slums. 

The area selected for the project implementation is Sriniwapuri, an urban slum in New Delhi where #SHODH already operates a centre and a clear need has been felt for an intervention addressing nutritional challenges of the local community.

The project aims to improve the nutritional status and reduce malnutrition of the members of selected households in urban slums with a specific focus on the children. The activities covers more than 500 households and the preference is given to households with children under the age of 6 years. The focus on families with young children is to ensure that the maximum impact can be made through intervention in the early years.

1. One of the key strategies that the project will follow is working to include more #LowCost and #HighNutrition foods in the diets of the selected households to  ensure dietary diversity. Some of the foods that will be actively used throughout the project are #Millets. Millets are traditional Indian super foods. Grains like #Bajra (#PearlMillet), #Ragi/ #Mandua (#FingerMillet), #Jowar (#Sorghum) & #Sanwa (#Barnyard Millet) & #Kutki (#LittleMillet) are nutrition packed and rich in several #nutrients like #calcium, #iron, #protein etc. Another similar high nutrition and easily available food is #Moringa leaves.  They are known to be rich in many important nutrients, including #protein, #vitaminB6, #vitaminC, #riboflavin and iron. The cereals and other low cost nutritious additions will be made to the diets of the families through innovative ways. Cooking classes, tasting sessions, interaction with reputed chefs and presenting these foods in a more acceptable and delicious manner will be some of the key methods to encourage households. 
2. Along with an intervention to focus on the nutritional diversity of the entire household, specific focus will be on improving the diets of infants and young children. Mothers will be trained to make homemade baby cereals with these grains which will be much more nutritious than other diets fed to young children. 
3. Along with the nutritional interventions, behaviour change communication will be done impact behavioural patterns with respect to clean drinking water, sanitation and hygiene.

#SHODH has been organising Poshan Maah or the nutrition month during September every year, in order to bring about a change in the behaviour of community members for the past three years continuously. This is the fourth season of #PoshanMaah where in the focus is on a variety of issues like #GoodFood, #LocalFood, #FoodTraceability, #FoodTravel, #FoodInTheTimeOfPandemic, #ImmunityBoostingFood, #Millets, #FoodSafety, #ReadingTheLabel, #NoToJunkFood.

Like Every year, this year too, three participants every week will be selected based on their performance during the theme week and will be awarded during the #PoshanYoddhaAwards.

Poshan Yoddha Awards will be held during October/November 2022.

Rajeev R Pandey

Chief Executive

[email protected]