Laxman and Gyansa Bharti
On the 15th of April 2021 a meeting to raise awareness about malnutrition and the benefits of wild and uncultivated food, was conducted with Bhariya and Gond women SHG members of Kareaam village in Kareaam Rated Panchayat, Patalkot, Tamiya Block, Chhindwara District, Madhya Pradesh. 18 women participated in the meeting. The program commenced with a round of introductions followed by running through health and safety protocols related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The importance of wearing masks, maintaining appropriate physical distancing, not visiting one another’s houses, and avoiding shaking hands, was emphasized.
Some key signs of malnutrition among children were shared which included:
- The child being underweight.
- Lack of appetite.
- Irritability and anxiety
- Getting fever again and again
- Bloated stomach
- Extremely thin
- Skin rashes
- Tiredness and a lack of energy.
Nutritious traditional food items that can help combat malnutrition were discussed. These included laddus made from traditional crops like millets and other traditional recipes. A discussion on wild and uncultivated foods that include green leafy vegetables, fruits, flowers, seeds, tubers and mushrooms was facilitated. The benefits of consuming a variety of wild food was emphasized.
The Angan Wadi worker shared that she really enjoyed the program and said that a program on malnutrition should be held with pregnant women and new mothers. One of the participants Phulwati bai shared that in the past in their families their grandparents used to consume and use tubers, green leafy vegetables and medicinal plants from their forests which helped them keep illnesses at
