End Child Malnutrition Problem in Rural India
How can you help?
- Volunteer with us and become the voice of needy children in your area.
- Donate a minimum of Rs. 500 to secure nutrition for a child daily for a month.
- Spread the cause of Kalpaka and encourage people to volunteer/donate and save children’s lives today.
- Reach out to us at [email protected] for queries, and call us at 8867053777 if you spot a malnourished child and want to help.
Why is Malnutrition a severe problem?
Malnutrition of children under the age of 5 years is a significant public health problem in India. Sixty million children are underweight in India. Moreover, malnourished children are prone to infections and diseases like diarrhea, measles, and malaria.
What are we doing about it?
Kalpaka believes that strengthening the children equals securing a promising future for our Country, which the new generations will run.
Considering these statistics, Kalpaka Charitable Trust had an in-depth conversation with Doctors in rural Mandya and sensed the need for essential nutrients to combat under-nutrition. Therefore, we have planned to provide immunity boosters with Vitamin B-Complex and Iron/Calcium syrup and protein for growth through milk and eggs.
Vitamin B complex plays a vital role in maintaining good health and well-being, directly impacting energy levels, brain functioning, and cell metabolism.
Young kids require calcium and vitamin D to avoid a disease called Rickets, which softens the bones, causing bow legs, stunted growth, and sometimes weak muscles. Therefore, we are providing calcium syrup because the body quickly absorbs liquid calcium.
Undernutrition is widespread in rural areas. Therefore, we need your help to provide the necessary nutrition to rural malnourished children.
What areas are we covering?
We want to begin with the village of Kyathanahalli, Mandya District, Karnataka. While there are 35.7 percent malnourished children below the age of 5, Karnataka has 35.2 % of them.
Why start with Karnataka first?
While there are 35.7 percent malnourished children below the age of 5, Karnataka has 35.2 % of them.
In December 2020, a hospital in Bengaluru saw 30 children being admitted to their Nutritional Rehabilitation Centre because of malnutrition.
Project Plan
In Kyathanahalli, we have Government Doctors and around thirty ASHA workers working for the underprivileged.
ASHA workers get the information of underweight malnourished children first – therefore, they can convince the parents of malnourished children to visit Government clinics for the child’s physical checkup.
- We will maintain a system of plastic tokens – one for milk and one for an egg.
- We will entrust the Doctors with these tokens for distribution to malnourished children after a thorough physical checkup.
- The children can then use a token to get 300ml of milk from the Government Dairy and a token to get one egg daily from the provision stores.
300 ml of milk costs Rs. 10, and one egg costs an approx of Rs. 5.
This makes Rs. 15/day and Rs. 450/month for one malnourished child to retain healthy weight and nutrition standards for their age.
We have planned the same process for all the villages where we find malnourished kids.
Sources: