South West Garo Hills Deputy Commissioner, Ch. Ramakrishna today said medical reasons are not the cause of high maternal mortality and infant mortality rates in the state but due to problems of malnutrition.
Speaking at an even to celebrate Poshan Pakhwada held at Grazing A’ding, Chigitchakgre near Ampati on Saturday he said malnutrition 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 suggested tips to fight and prevent malnutrition.
At the programme, 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 programme.
The celebration was held under the theme, “Addressing Nutritional Challenges through Food Forestry” 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.
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.
