BHUBANESWAR: Covid-19 and cyclone Yaas affected the food and nutrition security of children and women adversely in the state. While Koraput was the best performing district in availing various services, Khurda was the worst performer during the pandemic, reveals a report released by the Odisha government.
The 242-page report ‘Covid -19 and nutrition in Odisha-what does the future hold’ indicated that household food expenditure and women’s dietary diversity were substantially low in May 2020 as compared to May 2019, particularly for non-staples like meat, egg, vegetables and fruits.
Covid had impacted programmes like distribution of iron and folic acid (IFA) tablets and MDM particularly to those who reside in hard-to-reach areas. IFA tablets and other antenatal care (ANC) services could not be timely provisioned with delay or stoppage of supply in many instances. Regular and timely supply of medicines, supplementary foods and medical equipment also emerged as a challenge due to lockdown and travel restrictions.
As per the report, Koraput, Gajapati, Sonepur, Rayagada and Deogarh were top-five performing districts while Khurda, Jharsuguda, Cuttack, Mayurbhanj and Angul were worst five performers in availing different health and nutritional services like IFA, mothers receiving antenatal care (ANC) services and weight measurement. The report has also included the Covid test positivity rate (TPR) and percentage of underweight children.
Koraput topped the districts as the highest 95 per cent (pc) beneficiaries received IFA tablets, 97.4 pc children were weighed regularly and 84.6 pc mothers received ANC services four times in the district. It has 8.08 pc underweight children and the average TPR was 0.67 pc.
Khurda was the worst performer as 76.9 pc beneficiaries received IFA, 89.7 pc children weighed and 65.6 pc mothers received ANC services four times. While the average Covid TPR was the highest at 4.75 pc, the district has 3.25 pc underweight children.
The unprecedented lockdown imposed during the pandemic enforced a change in the pattern of food consumption, with higher consumption of subsidised staple foods, which brought nutritional imbalances especially in poor households in the state, stated the report prepared by the government in collaboration with Unicef.
The comprehensive analysis has been done to understand the nutritional issues which resulted due to Covid-19 pandemic from the perspectives of service providers, programme planners as well as beneficiaries.