M F AHMAD
Daltonganj, Nov. 25: The brainchild contest ‘Healthy baby of the panchayat’ of DC Latehar, Abu Imran, was launched today at the Pandeypura based ‘Aapke Adhikar, Aaapki Sarkar, Aapke Dwar’ programme where 24 children, both boys and girls, showed up to compete. Out of the total participants, three children were found ‘yellow’ in the mid upper arm circumference (MUAC) tape.
MUAC is measured by a tape and has three categories- green, yellow and red. Green implies no malnutrition, yellow means onset of malnutrition and red means the child is malnourished.
Latehar district social welfare officer, Renu Ravi, said the parents of the children, who fell in the yellow category, have been asked to take care of their meals.
She agreed that these three children have to be saved from entering into the red zone which will then be a case of acute malnutrition. She said all nutritional support will be made available to them.
Sources said that the DC’s initiative of ‘healthy baby of the panchayat’ has twofold purposes. First is to find out the status of the children’s height, weight, MUAC, immunisation etc. And the other purpose is to ascertain if their mothers are vaccinated or not.
According to the contest’s claims, if a child comes clean on these parameters then he or she is to be awarded a certificate donning him or her as the healthy baby of the panchayat.
The finding of malnourished children has put the district social welfare office on toes as the concerned Anganbadi Kendras will now have to keep a close tab on these three children.
On other hand, two children, Jay Prakash and Engel Bara, were declared as healthy babies of the panchayat and were given toys much to their surprise and glee.
Mothers of all the 24 children who showed up today were found to be vaccinated.
