ZP holds events during nutrition month of Sept

Thane: The recent demise of the 14-year-old tribal girl from Palghar reportedly after suffering from anemia has pushed the Thane district administration to go on an overdrive and create a blueprint to try and eliminate the 0.1 per cent cases of anemia and undernourishment.

In their attempt to see the overall quality of health in the rural and the tribal pockets and prevent any fatalities, the zilla parishad (ZP) has started implementing and assorting 64 nutrition-centric events that will go on till the end of the National

Nutrition Month

.

“Of the total 11 lakh population in the district, around 1.3 lakh citizens come under our target group of children, pregnant women and lactating mothers. Of these, 153 or around 0.1 per cent currently fall in this undernourished category. We have come up with a plethora of projects centered on cleanliness, diet and health, which will be conducted during the nutrition month of September, to try and eradicate this problem,” said Santosh Bhosale, Thane ZP’s women and child welfare officer.

Be it through discussions and workshops on topics related to nutritious diet, the importance of nutrition for good health, pregnant mothers, prevention of malnutrition, etc at anganwadis, gram panchayats and schools or through door-to-door visits and setting up of nutrition fairs, prabhat pheris, competitions and educative skits and processions, the message of healthy living is the key focus of this campaign during this month.

“Our plan includes wiping out all the myths that prevent pregnant and lactating women from various healthy practices in these rural belts. Through these programs we want to drive the message of healthy and clean living,” added Bhosale.