THOOTHUKUDI: Owing to the Ensure Nutrition scheme, the nutritional level of over 70% of the children under six years old, who were identified as 'nutrition deficient', has improved, said Social Welfare and Women Empowerment Minister Geetha Jeevan.
In an interview with TNIE, the minister said Chief Minister MK Stalin has been taking uncompromising steps to improve the health of children and their mothers.
The Chief Minister launched the Ensure Nutrition scheme for children aged below six years at Doddabetta Panchayat Muthorai Children Centre on May 21, 2022. The scheme with an allotment of Rs 18 crore, aimed to identify malnourished children and improve their nutrition levels.
The growth assessment was conducted for 37.79 lakh children enrolled in 53,000 anganwadi centres in the state. The children were screened for height, weight, and age-based growth during the state-wide special medical camp for malnourished children held under the scheme.
While 9,30,610 children were shortlisted for providing nutritional assistance during the growth assessment, as many as 1,06,916 were categorised as 'severe nutrition deficient', requiring special intervention. Among the severely nutrition-deficient children, 14,901 were less than six months old.
As a part of the scheme, lactating mothers were provided nutritional kits, while children aged between six months to six years, were given special RUTF (Ready to Use Therapeutic Food), as suggested by the health department.
"The nutritional level of children was ascertained with the help of data on their age-based height, age-based weight, and height-based weight. The deviation of the height, weight, and growth velocity helped to identify nutritional deficiency. Assistance was provided to normalise these criteria to levels as required by World Health Organisation (WHO)," said Geetha Jeevan.
As a result of effective implementation of the scheme, as many as 10,583 (71%) of the severely nutrition deficient children below six months, have recovered to normal levels, and 2,732 children (18.3%) have improved moderately.
Similarly, 36,886 (40.09%) and 24,414 kids (26.53%) among the severely nutritional deficient category aged between six months and six years have recovered to normal and moderate levels respectively.
"Totally, 74,615 children have shown improvement. We could not achieve the height growth velocity of the children as required by the standards suggested by the union government with reference to WHO guidelines, since it is related to genes and hereditary traits. We will monitor these children for a longer period. Moreover, the assessment helped identify over 43,200 children having heart ailments, cancer, cleft lip, and cleft palate at earlier stages. They have been referred for further medical treatment under the scheme," the minister added.