New Delhi/Keonjhar
Tribal haats have always been a point of attraction, as these are not only places of economic activity, but are also vibrant social places.
Now, a specialised project with the aid of global partners aims to make these weekly markets centres of research on food and nutrition. A study titled Indian Food Systems for Improved Nutrition was launched last year around September to make the tribal families of Keonjhar district in Odisha aware about how to access nutritious foods for improved health.
Under this initiative, some selected tribal villages of Keonjhar have been selected where the aim would be to work with households in order to understand the quality of food consumed and how it could be improved.
“As part of the project, my organisation wants to encourage tribal families to consume more fruits, vegetables and animal-based foods, as these are important for good health,” said Shibanath Pradhan of Varrat (Voluntary Association for Rural Reconstruction and Appropriate Technology), a non-profit founded in 1983. If the programme helps to improve people’s diets in the tribal villages of Keonjhar, a similar approach could be used elsewhere.
Importance of nutrition
India has food and nutrition programmes. These range from the Mid-Day Meal Scheme, now renamed PM-Poshan, in schools to nutrition awareness sessions regularly held at anganwadis for mothers and children.
However, many people, especially tribals, are still not aware about the importance of having nutritious meals and how to buy such foods from tribal haats, which are weekly rural markets. This is all the more necessary now, as packaged foods like chips have flooded rural markets. Fried food is also sold in the form of jalebis, bhajis and samosas.
A special focus of the programme is on families who have children between 0 to 5 years of age, as proper nutrition in early childhood is important for growth and development.
Like most tribal districts, malnutrition is prevalent in Keonjhar, where nearly one-third (36 percent) of children under the age of five are stunted (short for their age) due to inadequate nutrition and about one-fourth (24 percent) of children under five are wasted (thin for their height), says the NITI Aayog district nutrition profile. In India, over 77 percent of children aged in the range of 6-23 months lack dietary diversity as recommended by the World Health Organization.
Apart from Varrat, the research is being conducted by Ekjut and Design Jatra. While Varrat supports rural livelihoods and sustainable community development in Odisha, Ekjut works across India on maternal, newborn and child health and Design Jatra, an architecture and design organisation, works to improve the design of public and private spaces using community-led approaches. The research will be conducted in collaboration with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine based in London.
Targeting tribal village haats
The research would cover 60 haats in Keonjhar where meetings would be organised with tribal families through participatory activities like the family market day, during which cooking demonstrations, games and food tasting sessions would be organised.
In the course of time, dedicated teams would provide training on nutrition to frontline health workers like Anganwadi workers and ASHAs. Besides, training on safe food handling and hygienic practices are being demonstrated to vendors who sell fried foods and sweets. As part of this, a vendor training programme on food safety and hygiene was conducted at the weekly Laxmiposi Haat Pindi on May 14 in neighbouring Mayurbhanj district.
A prime objective of the research is to work with the leaseholders of weekly haats that are leased out by gram panchayats or village councils to co-design healthier spaces. The target is to increase the availability of nutritious foods, improve cleanliness and reduce food waste.
An attractive feature are the kiosks where buyers can discuss food needs, receive recipe tips, and sign up to receive short videos about healthy foods on phones.
Pradhan’s colleague Jyoti Ranjan Barik informed that a major focus was on household visits to families which have children from 0 to 5 years old in the villages. The parents of these children were being shown videos on food and nutrition on mobile phones.
After the research ends in December 2028, follow-up interviews would be conducted with the same families to understand if and how things have changed over time. The research targets about 1,860 tribal families in Keonjhar. Till now, 30 haats have been covered in six blocks of the district.
“The purpose of the study is to test this new programme in the villages, which involves working with tribal people in rural haats, and see how their diet can be improved,” Pradhan added.
In a village called Bholobeda in Keonjhar, tribal resident Kalyani Nayak, who is in her 20s, visits her nearby haat twice or thrice a month to buy household essentials. “As it is nearby, I go walking either alone or with my mother-in-law,” said Kalyani, who has a son aged one year eight months. “I buy vegetables from the haat and do not buy fried stuff much. Some eight months back I used to buy fried foods but have stopped now due to the sessions. As of now, my family has attended four meetings to understand about healthy diets.”
The woman already has a nutrition garden at her house where she grows brinjal, Indian spinach and pumpkin. “I do not sell the produce but use them in my kitchen.”
Kalyani’s mother-in-law, Damayanti Nayak, did not know about nutrition and used to cook whatever she got near at hand. Though the family consumes eggs and meat, they eat rice as millets are not that much available in Keonjhar.
Barik explained that families are being urged to buy nutritious foods. He feels that if parents understand nutrition, they will provide healthy food to children. But Barik is pragmatic. “If we tell them not to eat fried stuff at all, they may not listen. Slowly, the habit has to be changed.”
There have been specialised programmes to help communities. Varrat ran a video programme, which is now over, to improve maternal health in Keonjhar and Mayurbhanj. Many pregnant women are barred from eating certain foods during their pregnancy and while lactating due to social taboos. These videos were produced since 2016 with the collaboration of Digital Green, a developmental organisation. The videos helped break existing myths around food and pregnancy. According to the National Family Health Survey-5 report, 57 percent of women between 15 and 49 years are anaemic. The risk increases during pregnancy.
To improve the nutrition of rural communities, the Mo Upakari Bagicha Project, a nutrition initiative under the Odisha Livelihoods Mission in partnership with the Azim Premji Philanthropic Initiatives, was conceptualised around 2018 and launched in 2019. Under this, rural women were encouraged to set up nutrition gardens.
