Baseline Survey for ICICI Foundations Project on "Strengthening Convergent Action for Reducing Child Under-nutrition in Baran District, Rajasthan

Agency : ICICI Foundation

The ICICI Foundation Centre for Child Health and Nutrition had designed a program to strengthen the delivery of health and nutrition services of ICDS in the rural blocks of Baran. The project launched on a pilot basis in 253 Anganwadi Centres (AWCs) of Shahabad and Kishanganj blocks of Baran District aimed to strengthen the delivery of services in the ICDS and focused on supplementary nutrition, growth monitoring, referrals, health and nutrition education and health checkups, as appropriate, for adolescent girls, pregnant and nursing mothers, 0-3 year olds and 3-6 year olds

The objectives were to carry out the baseline survey for the project and to provide the baseline estimates on the key indicators at the start of the project which could be used to measure the outcomes at the end of the project period in order to refine the project strategies and activity plan.

The project has been successfully completed. Anthropometric measures of the children (6-60 months) were assessed and were found to be below the standard measure and so was the enrollment measure of children in the Anganwadi Centers. The status of the institutional delivery was analyzed and was found to have improved, whereas the awareness and management of diarrhea for children was assessed and only 9% women were aware of homemade ORS formulations. Distribution and Consumption of Take Home Ration (THR) was surveyed and only 23% children were found to be using THR while the supplementary nutrition packets at the Anganwadi center were found to have expired. Assessment of Malnutrition Treatment Centers was done and it was found that they had insufficient human resources and that the staff were uneducated and the follow-up of the admitted children and referral services were poor.


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