‘Nutritional content of food consumed by Khasis poor’

Nutritional content of food consume by most families in the Khasi society is poor.
This was discussed at a convergence meet on Poshan Maah held in Mawkyrwat on Monday by ICDS cell, DPO B Nengnong wherein she said that the food habits of the people here that comprises of rice, potato and tea, that are rich in carbohydrates do not meet the nutritional requirements of the body.
Therefore, Nengnong said the government is providing a Supplementary Food Programme through Anganwadi centres to help children, pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, and old people.
She also spoke about the importance to measure the weight of the children to know the nutritional status and to take precautionary measures.
Nengnong also informed that one of the aims of this year’s Poshan Maah is to identify Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) children and help them. She mentioned that Home Visit is one of the ways to identify SAM children, to know the health status of the community, children, aged person, pregnant and breastfeeding mothers.
“In order to have a healthy family which will in turn lead to a healthy society, it is very important that fathers take an active role in providing nutritional food and work together in a family”, Nengnong said. She urged village leaders and fathers to collaborate in starting a kitchen garden that will provide healthy vegetables and fruits for their family and society.
DM&HO of South West Khasi Hills Dr. F.R. Lartang spoke about birth spacing. He said that it is very important to maintain good health of the child and mother, to provide better care physically and emotionally. He added that birth spacing helped in economic and social life besides population reduction and removing congestion.
While speaking on SAM he said that it usually occurs due to pandemic, broken families and sickness where parents are not able to provide nutritional food to children. He added that the symptoms of SAM are fatigue, fever, loss of appetite, slow healing process when sick, and lack of concentration in studies or at work. He also mentioned that lack of nutrition will also lead to stunting and if not taken care of at an early stage it will be difficult in future. He urged people to cultivate the habits of eating a balanced diet right from an early stage to avoid complications or illnesses in future. He said that purchasing of vegetables does not affect much financially but it will be of great help to the family and society.
Technology Manager of Agriculture Technology Management Agency (ATMA) A Larisha Diengdoh spoke on “Importance of Nutri Garden in Anganwadi Centre (AWC) and family.” She said that it is very important to have a kitchen garden of four seasons that will provide green and fresh vegetables which will be tastier, organic and will provide sufficient nutrition and vitamins that one’s health requires to keep oneself healthy.
She added that Nutri Garden will reduce one’s expenditure on vegetables and will help one to budget for other things like education, house maintenance, etc. She further said that a kitchen garden will provide one with vegetables like beans, grams and other nutrients that will substitute one’s body requirements of meat consumption.