Assam district’s project on malnutrition chosen for PM’s award

Sampoorna, an initiative of western Assam’s Bongaigaon district to combat malnutrition, brought down 95.6% of the malnourished children to normal state, officials said

GUWAHATI

Sampoorna, an initiate of western Assam’s Bongaigaon district to combat malnutrition among children has been chosen for the Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Public Administration, 2021.

The district was selected in the ‘Innovation’ category.

M.S. Lakshmi Priya, the district’s deputy commissioner said the project employs a decentralised, technology-based model using community participation and women empowerment as the positive deviance factor for achieving result.

The project has helped bring 95.6% of the district’s malnourished children to normal state within a year of its introduction and empowering the mothers of the children involved helped sustain it.

Project Sampoorna assessed and identified 2,416 malnourished children and mothers. Google live sheets and WhatsApp were used to update and monitor the data captured. A colour-coded growth chart (weight/height) for boys and girls was put up in each Anganwadi Centre, which assessed and identified severe acute malnourished (SAM) and moderate acute malnourished (MAM) children for necessary attention.

“Each malnourished child was tagged with the mother of a healthy child and each healthy mother was marked a buddy mother,” Ms. Lakshmi Priya said.