Region-Specific Food For Anganwadi Children In Odisha With Focus On Millets

Bhubaneswar: Affirming the Odisha government’s resolve to eliminate malnutrition from the state, Deputy Chief Minister Pravati Parida on Monday said grassroots level workers will have to play a major role in preventing nutritional problems in all districts.

Parida, who attended a state-level Nutrition Month-2024 event organised by the Women and Child Development department, said that the grassroots workers are the warriors of the nutrition campaign in the state.

Expressing concern over the supply of substandard chhatua, the Deputy CM said the department is thinking in terms of taking steps for providing region-specific food to Anganwadi children.

Stating that the department is drawing a lot of criticism over poor-quality chhatua, she said there will be no more irregularities in the supply of chhatua in future.

Parida said the children will be supplied with region-specific food and the department is mulling to replace chhatua with millets in places where it is prevalent, said the Deputy Chief Minister.

Stressing that the government is committed to ensuring a malnutrition-free Odisha, she said a conclave on the manufacturing of nutritious chhatua will be organised. Experienced professionals will make decisions in this regard, she said.

“There are regional differences in nutrition, malnutrition and anaemia. To do away with this, the district-level officers have been asked to act as per the feedback received from the bottom level. In the coming days, children will be provided more nutritious and wholesome food so that state  becomes malnutrition-free,” said Parida.