Siddhivinayak temple to make special laddoos to battle malnutrition

The laddoos could bring down malnutrition by 20%, say officials

The Shree Siddhivinayak Ganpati Temple Trust has devised an out-of-the-box idea to curb malnutrition - laddoos packed with essential nutrients like iron, zinc, and vitamins, among others. Officials said each malnourished child will be given a free packet of two laddoos daily. The additional cost of fortification will be Rs 1 per laddoo and will be absorbed by the temple trust with support from the state.

Three well-known names from premier institutions - Dr Alka Jadhav, paediatric professor, Sion Hospital, Prof NG Shah from IIT's Centre for Technology Alternatives for Rural Areas, and Prof Uday Anapure, Head, Department of Food Engineering and Technology, Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT) - have started work on making the fortified laddoos, which will have the same shelf life and taste of the regular Siddhivinayak laddoos.

"As per our understanding, the plan is to supply these laddoos to the anganwadis in malnourished areas," said Prof Anapure. "ICT's role will be to provide technical support and help with scientific product development. People generally don't have the tendency to say no to anything associated in the name of god and prasad. So we are positive about this."

A malnourished child from Jawhar and A malnourished child with his mother in Jawhar. File pics

Pilot in Palghar
Vinita Vaid Singal, Secretary, Women and Child Development (WCD), and the Siddhivinayak trust board have both endorsed the concept. "An MoU with the Siddhivinayak trust will be signed soon," said Singal. "We will start the pilot project in Palghar [covering the tribal areas of Vikramghad, Mokhada and Jawhar]. We want to start this program at the earliest." Aadesh Bandekar, chairman, Siddhivinayak trust, said the kitchen work is underway and machines are being procured. "Experts from IIT-B, Sion Hospital and ICT are working on the program," he said.

Senior WCD department officials said that of the 37 lakh children screened in the six months to 6 years age group, 20,903 fell under the Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) category and 33,827 were in the Moderate Acute Malnutrition (MAM) category. Nashik, with 4,036 children, had the highest SAM incidence, while Nandurbar had 2,469. Nashik topped the charts in MAM cases also, with 10,176 children, followed by Aurangabad with 3,407. Palghar, where the pilot project will be started, had 2,663 SAM cases. mid-day had reported on August 5, 2013, that 550 kids were starving in Jawhar and Mokhada, highlighting the plight of malnourished children in Palghar.

"We are hoping that even if children are given two laddoos daily or say three times a week at the anganwadi, it should bring down malnourishment by around 20 per cent in the first few months. The special ladoos will be distributed through anganwadis run by Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) in Palghar, and will later be expanded," said an official, adding that the laddoos will be fortified with five to seven micronutrients like Iron, Zinc, Vitamin A, folic acids, etc.

Indira Maloo, Commissioner, ICDS, said, "We are yet to be apprised about the ladoo initiative, but it sounds interesting. We are celebrating Nutrition Month [September] and have introduced a concept called 'Adopt Life' for the first 1,000 days from when a child is born, which is a period in which they are vulnerable and at risk of infant mortality. We have roped in all departments concerned across the state to make the program a success. Through our Village Child Development Centers (VCDC), we are able to monitor malnutrition cases and diagnose them at an early stage."

Automated laddoo centre
Siddhivinayak temple sources said a fully automated laddoo-making unit will replace the existing kitchen. "The civil work for the fully automated centre for making the prasad laddoos is at its completion stage," said a source. Devotees will continue to get the normal laddoos, which cost Rs 20 for two. The malnutrition packs will be green in colour. Other details will be finalised once the MoU is signed. The procurement order for the laddoo-making machine is done, and it will be in place soon.

"We want to minimise the human interface in making of the laddoos," said a temple official. "Presently, around 40,000 laddoos of 50g each are made daily and it usually gets over the same day." The automated unit will help increase these numbers. Prasad for devotees will continue to be the same, and additional laddoos will be made for the tribal children project.

1 in 4
Children are stunted due to malnutrition globally

2.6mn
No. of children killed due to malnutrition globally, one-third of all deaths

Two
If a child becomes malnourished before this age, damage can be irreparable

How is malnutrition measured?
The severity of malnutrition is measured by weight-to-age ratio (underweight), or weight-to-height ratio (wasting), or weight-to-age ratio (stunting). Mid-upper arm circumference is used to measure the extent of wasting in children between six months and 6 years. Head circumference is used to measure if brain growth is normal in the first few years after birth. For adolescents and adults, BMI (weight-to-height) is used.

Supplementary Nutrition Program
Under the SNP programme, ICDS ensures that all anganwadi serve morning snacks and hot cooked meals to children in the age group of three to six years. Each child gets 500 kilo-calories and 12 to 15 grams of protein. Snacks include Murmure (rice), chivda, dal, and groundnuts four days a week and murmura-jaggery laddoo twice a week. A hot cooked meal consists of dal usal twice a week, khichidi twice a week and sweet lassi thrice a week. There are 553 ICDS projects in Maharashtra; 364 in rural areas, 85 in tribal areas and 104 in urban slums. Of the state's 1.3 crore children in the 0-6 age group, 86 lakh are covered by ICDS via 88,272 anganwadis.

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