TURA, March 20: To mark the celebration of Poshan Pakhwada 2021 across the country from March 16 to March 31, a day-long programme combining various events and activities was held at Grazing A’ding, Chigitchakgre near Ampati on Saturday under the theme, “Addressing Nutritional Challenges through Food Forestry”.
Based on the theme and with an objective to carry out plantation of saplings having nutritional values, the programme was organized by District Programme Officer, ICDS (C) with Betasing and Zikzak Child Development Projects in convergence with various line departments, including, Health, Agriculture, Horticulture, PHE-Swachh Bharat Mission and NRLM among others.
Speaking as the chief guest on the occasion, South West Garo Hills Deputy Commissioner, Ch. Ramakrishna opined that in Meghalaya, which has the highest maternal mortality and infant mortality rates, most of the deaths are not due to medical reasons but due to problems of malnutrition which can be solved with very little efforts from everyone’s part.
“Nutrition is not a one day job but a continuous process and a lot of nutritional problems can be addressed by making it our habit to consume locally and seasonally available nutrition rich fruits and vegetables” he said and gave simple tips to fight and prevent malnutrition.
Later the Deputy Commissioner distributed seeds and saplings of nutritional value to the Anganwadi workers for planting in their respective Anganwadi centres and also led the gathering in plantation of saplings.
Earlier, CDPO Zikzak, Torali K Marak in her introductory address highlighted on the objectives of the celebration and the activities being undertaken at all Anganwadi centres to address nutritional issues. Nutritionist Emma D. Sangma deliberated at length on Paustik Ahaar (healthy grains) and the importance of kitchen garden, while District TB Officer, Dr. John K Marak gave a talk on how malnutrition can lead to tuberculosis.
Anaemia screening by the district Health team, demonstration of hand washing techniques by SBM team, cooking demonstration and display of nutritious food and other products by self help groups under NRLM were some of the activities conducted during the day’s programme.
