SILCHAR: As part of Poshan Maah celebrations, a mega adoption drive for severely acute malnourished and moderately acute malnourished children of age group of 6 months to 5 years under the project Parvarish was organised by Social welfare Department, Cachar in collaboration with District Administration at the auditorium hall of Pragati Bidya Niketan here in Katigorah on Wednesday.
Cachar Deputy Commissioner Keerthi Jalli inaugurated the programme in presence of MLA Katigorah Khalil Uddin Majumder and other dignitaries.
Speaking on occasion Deputy Commissioner Cachar Keerthi Jalli said, "The objective of the poshan maah is to ensure community mobilization and bolster people's participation for addressing silent killer malnutrition amongst young children and women and to ensure health and nutrition for everyone. Instead of government giving supplementary nutrition, we wanted a community mobilized initiative where community can participate in a systemised way to ensure the district is devoid of malnutrition."
"A dashboard of SAM/MAM children was developed for good hearted donors to come forward for adopting the children nutritional responsibility under Mission Parvarish" She added. "Maximum mental growth of a child occurs in first to third years and if they are subjected to poor nutrition during this crucial period, than it gets difficult to attain back the growth trajectory. Parvarish an initiative against Malnutrition was launched at Cachar District on September 27 to eradicate Malnutrition from society. The main aim is to provide nutritious food item to those who are suffering from Malnutrition and also comes under BPL category," Jalli quipped.
DC Jalli also appreciated the Anganwadi workers, Anganwadi helpers and officials poshan team of cachar district for their outstanding efforts to make it a big success. She specially thanked Civil Society for coming forward to support this project.
District Social welfare Officer, Cachar, Saswati Som also spoke on occasion. She said, "In Cachar district, 712 children have been identified as SAM (Severely Acutely Malnourished) and MAM during the months of Aug - September, 2021. All of these children have been adopted by Cachar residents. Malnourishment can only be eradicated when all of us fight against it together.",
Deputy Superintendent of Katigorah Model Primary Hospital, Dr Ratna Chakraborty in her address said, "The health of the mother as well as the baby depends on good health and nutrition of the mother right after conception. The most crucial period is the first trimester of pregnancy when the baby is being formed. Foods such as banana-flower, green leafy vegetables, Jaggery and vitamin rich fruits like lemon can be a good source. Source of high protein foods are eggs, chick peas, soyabean, lentils etc. Unfortunately, if malnutrition is detected then proper and timely treatment at NRC (Nutritional Rehabilitation Center at SM Dev civil hospital ,Silchar) should be done, stated a press release.
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