Why do rural mothers feed biscuits in breakfast to kids? Survey by Jagruti Mahila Okkoota

Women of Jagruti Mahila Okkoota are working on fighting malnutrition in 30 villages of Karnataka. They are educating mothers about malnutrition & nutritious food.

A Group of women in Karnataka did a door-to-door survey on the food habits in villages of Belagavi district, Karnataka.

In the survey, they understood that women gave their children biscuits and tea for breakfast while they ate roti or rice before setting out for work.

Asking moms to substitute home-cooked roti or rice for biscuits has proven to be a very effective intervention in improving the nutritional status of the kids.

For a study of malnourished kids, activists went door to door. For nine months, around 30 Okkoota campaigners have been active in 30 villages in the Kittur and Khanapur talukas. 

The study, which targeted families from marginal, landless, and other marginalised populations, covered almost 800 kids.

Most believed that extra nutrition came from buying expensive items. We had to tell them it was all about rearrangement of time of eating and the balance between grains, greens and milk productsRajeshwari Joshi, member of Jagruti Mahila Okkoota

A few mothers were taught how to make groundnut and jaggery laddus by activists. These women then instructed other women, raising awareness about nutritious food.

The survey found two interesting things.

1) Children that were given two to three eggs a week did not have malnutrition. The State Government provides 2 eggs every week.

2) Powder for children is used as cow feed

As part of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) programme, families with small children receive monthly packets of “Pushti,” a nutritional supplement, which is mostly offered to cows and buffaloes.

Because whenever they gave the powder to youngsters, it caused diarrhoea.

We found that the nutrition supplement mixture had coarse groundnut powder that was difficult for young children to digest. We asked them to use it after sifting the fine powder. We also taught them to make Chikkis using the coarse mix.Rajeshwari Joshi, member of Jagruti Mahila Okkoota

What do you think about this? Let us know in the comment box.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *