
It is a matter of grave concern that the government of Odisha has unilaterally stopped the three-year-long Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTG) nutrition development programme (A community based creche program) for children between 0 to 3 years of age just a week before, i-e from 30th of September this year. It is even more unfortunate that before shutting it down, the Government did not consult any public elected representatives, or groups of tribal communities, or any statutory/ advisory body, or any individuals or organizations involved in policymaking in areas of health and nutrition focusing children under-3 of the PVTG communities. It would not be an exaggeration to say that this is a stumbling block towards the development of the primitive tribal groups of our state.
It is well known that while there is a provision of Anganwadi for the nutrition and cognitive development of children in the age group of 3 to 6 years in our state, there is no long-term, institutional arrangement and adequate budgetary provision required for addressing the issue of under nutrition of PVTG children between 0 to 3 years of age. 2-3 years ago, in the name of a “special nutrition budget”, the government kept only a very small amount in the budget and sat in the lap of some bureaucrats. We all are aware that the first 1,000 days (from conception of the baby in the mother’s womb till the completion of two years after birth) are crucial for the physical, intellectual, emotional and mental development of the child.
Keeping this in mind, the ST-SC development department of the Government of Odisha launched a special programme called “PVTG Nutrition Improvement Programme” (OPNIP) in Odisha to improve health and nutrition among the 13 PVTG communities in Odisha as part of its ongoing OPLIP (Odisha PVTG livelihood improvement program) programme.
This “PVTG Nutrition Improvement Programme” (OPNIP) was implemented in 89 GPs of 17 micro project agencies in 12 districts of Odisha.
The following are the 3 main component of OPNIP.
Community-based crèche (SISHU GRUHA) for children under the age of 3 years (Total no of creches. 61)
Maternal Spot Feeding Centre (MSFC) for pregnant and lactating women (Total no of centre No. 161)
Spot Feeding Centres for Children in Remote Villages (for children between 3 to 6 years) (SFC) (Total centres-111)
This crèche or SISHU GRUHA (The program has been commonly known as Matru Sishu Poshan Kendra-MSPK- which means “Maternal Child Nutrition Centre-MSPK”) provides childcare services during daytime for children under the age of 3 years in PVTG villages, with special focus on feeding, regular growth monitoring, early childhood care, early stimulation, program management etc.
These centres provided basic daycare facilities (for 7-8 hours per day) to children between the ages of six months and three years of age, six days a week, as well as provides two snacks with one hot cooked meal every day at the centres. Similarly, in inaccessible areas, pregnant mothers and 3-6-year-old babies were given hot cooked food.
For this, along with the State Government, there was direct and indirect support from the State Government, IFAD, Ministry of Tribal Affairs of the Central Government, The Azim Premji Foundation, An All-India resource organization for providing technical support on health and nutrition, Department of Women and Child Development, The Department of Health & Family Welfare etc.
But it is unfortunate that this noble initiative has recently been stopped by the government of Odisha as a result of which, thousands of children belonging to primitive tribes are going to get trapped into the vicious circle of malnutrition and causing an irreversible damage to the physical, emotional, intellectual, and mental development. By this these children will not be able to be at par with the children of other sections of our society in the field of education, health, R&D, and the overall socio-economic development.
By this these children in future will be alienated from the social mainstream and facing the conventional process of marginalisation. Therefore, we call upon the Government to immediately intervene in the matter and immediately resume/restart this creche programme to protect the rights of tribal children and maintain the trend of development of the State.
The press meet was held at Lohiya academy and was addressed by Prafulla Samantara, Gouranga Mohapatra, Puspa Das, Dr. Biswajit, Sameet Panda.