Health boost for senior citizens in Malappuram

Senior citizens living within Malappuram municipal limits will now start supplementing their daily diet with Horlicks, oats, and cornflakes. The municipality has launched a unique nutrition scheme to boost the health of senior citizens.

Senior citizens living within Malappuram municipal limits will now start supplementing their daily diet with Horlicks, oats, and cornflakes. The municipality has launched a unique nutrition scheme to boost the health of senior citizens.

As many as 5,824 senior citizens will benefit from the scheme in the initial phase. They are being given special nutrient food kits containing Horlicks, oats, ragi or finger millet, and cornflakes. Each kit will cost ₹826.

Municipal chairperson Mujeeb Kaderi said the municipality adopted the scheme with the objective of not only ensuring sound health of senior citizens but also instilling in them self-confidence and the feeling of social recognition. He added that a municipal body was launching such a scheme for the first time.

The municipality launched the unique nutrient project under innovative schemes as the recognised schemes of three-tier local bodies could not include such a scheme.

The municipality had launched several programmes to bring back people from different social strata to the mainstream after COVID-19 wreaked havoc in society. The pandemic had particularly affected senior citizens, and many of them were proscribed from going out of their homes for fear of getting infected.

“This nutrient supplement project is a kind of rehabilitation for senior citizens who have been forced to stay at home because of COVID-19. Many are still living in fear of getting infected, when some are fighting the after-effects of the pandemic,” said Mr. Kaderi.

Inaugurating the distribution of premium food kits on Saturday, Mr. Kaderi said the scheme would be strengthened and continued by including more beneficiaries.