Date:19/11/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/11/19/stories/2008111960150300.htm

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Call to tackle problem of malnutrition in children

Staff Reporter

‘Anganwadi workers should be given accreditation’

Focus on health
of children in the
0-3 age group
Anganwadi workers poorly paid:
UNICEF chief

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The State needs to revamp the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) to tackle the problem of children suffering from malnourishment, representatives of United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have recommended.

The Anganwadi workers should be given accreditation and the State should revive the Global Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) strategy to tackle the issue of malnutrition. There should be increased focus on the health of children in the 0-3 age group, UNICEF chief for Kerala and Tamil Nadu Satish Kumar said.

He was speaking at the conclusion of a two-day State-level workshop on Achieving Maternal and Child Health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDG) in Kerala here on Tuesday. The workshop was organised jointly by the UNICEF and the Child Development Centre.

The ICDS intervention, which started in Kerala in 1975, had been doing a commendable job in delivering health education to the masses and in promoting nutrition and micronutrient supplementation initiatives meant for women and children. However, the under-utilisation of ICDS services and lack of recognition for the work done by Anganwadi workers led to the collapse of the system in Kerala.

The Anganwadi workers were poorly paid and they were often engaged in other work assigned by the local self-governing bodies, with the result that their services were not available for any child or maternal care interventions in the community, it was pointed out at the workshop. Dr. Satishkumar said primary health centres should not be treated as just places for delivering low cost care but should be developed as hubs for guiding the public and referring them to appropriate healthcare institutions or professionals.

The Panchayati Raj institutions had a key role in developing and sustaining healthcare models suited to the community. They should ensure that health allocations resulted in good outcomes also, he said. The UNICEF would conduct more regional workshops on Kerala’s progress towards MDG. Local body representatives and health planners would be given training on how to overcome the gaps and to customise the millennium development goals to the State’s health profile.

“The UNICEF will help enrich the district action plan of the National Rural Health Mission with inputs and make the plan more realistic and viable to achieve the MDG,” Dr. Satishkumar said.