Survey in north Karnataka reveals why rural women offer biscuits to their children

A women’s voluntary group working is helping counter malnutrition among children in 30 villages of Belagavi district in Karnataka. They are creating awareness among mothers about malnutrition and nutritious food

Members of Jagruti Mahila Okkoota, who were on a door-to-door survey on the food habits in some villages of Belagavi district in Karnataka, found that women were giving biscuit and tea to their children for breakfast while they ate roti or rice before setting out for work.

A simple intervention — of asking mothers to replace biscuit with home-cooked roti or rice — has gone a long way in ensuring the children get better nutrition.

Simple tweaks of this kind, made by the women’s voluntary group working in the field of health, is part of a campaign to fight malnutrition among children in 30 villages of Belagavi district in Karnataka. They are creating awareness among mothers about malnutrition by organising mothers’ meets in villages, interacting with anganwadi workers and training mothers in preparing nutritious food for their children using easily available material.

In the first phase, activists went door-to-door for a survey of malnourished children. Around 30 activists of the Okkoota have been working in 30 villages in Kittur and Khanapur taluks for nine months. Around 800 children were covered in the survey with the target being families from marginal, landless, and other oppressed communities.

Malnourished children were categorised using the WHO growth chart that lays down parameters based on age, height and weight.

Severely malnourished children were identified and their mothers were counselled. The teachers and workers in the anganwadis that these children attended, were also involved.

Sharada Gopal, co-founder, said a major challenge was fighting misconceptions about nutrition, such as the belief that food purchased from stores has more nutrient value.