THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In what could be a food for thought for other states, Kerala is gearing up to distribute nutrition bars for underweight children in the state during the lockdown. In a first-of-its-kind initiative, nutrition-rich ready-to-eat therapeutic food - Thenamruthu - would be distributed to severely underweight children from poverty-ridden and backward communities in the state.
The nutrition supplement bar is expected to help revive the nutrition status of these children between 0 to 6 years of age. As per the statistics with the Women and Child Development Department, there are around 5,500 underweight children in the state. A senior official of the department said the nutri-bars would be distributed from May 1.
The project is being launched as part of the Sampushta Keralam, a programme of Kerala State Nutrition Mission. Director of the Women and Child Development Department T V Anupama told TNIE that the production of the nutri bar would begin this week itself.
“The shutting down of anganwadis following the pandemic Covid-19 has made it impossible for us to monitor thousands of under-weight children who are in need of additional nutrition supplements. Hence we decided to rope in a nutrition consultant to develop an additional supplement to help these children,” said Anupama.