Bangalore : Tata Chemicals Society for Rural Development (TCSRD), the CSR arm of Tata Chemicals Limited, has initiated project ‘Vruddhi’ with implementation partner Niramay Charitable Trust. This is aimed at reducing maternal and child malnutrition, anaemia among pregnant women and adolescent girls and, improving primary health care services in the Okhamandal taluka.
Project ‘Vruddhi’ is meant to comprehensively address the prevalent issue of malnutrition by providing requisite healthcare assistance to adolescent girls and pregnant women to improve pregnancy outcomes, including low birth weight in newborn child. The project will also focus on the early identification and treatment of all Low Birth Weight (LBW) children, and that would facilitate cognitive development at an early age. Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) children in the age group of 6 to 59 months will receive 14 days of facility-level care at either the Child Malnutrition Treatment Centre (CMTC) Dwarka or the Nutritional Rehabilitation Centre (NRC) in Jam-Khambhalia followed by six weeks of community-level care. In addition, under this project, a Mobile Health Clinic will provide village-level healthcare to the rural community of Okhamandal, making healthcare more accessible.
Expressing his thoughts on the initiative, N.Kamath, Chief Manufacturing Officer & Plant Head (Mithapur), Tata Chemicals Limited stated, "TCSRD, in collaboration with Niramay Charitable Trust, is dedicated to combating maternal and child malnutrition in the Okhamandal taluka. We aim to not only provide essential interventions but also focus on improving community awareness, creating strong healthcare infrastructure, building collaborative partnerships and developing sustainable community support. Under this initiative, we will provide free nutrition counselling to pregnant women who are underweight, along with providing them with nutrition kits and dietary supplements. Improving WASH (Water, Sanitation & Hygiene) practices and breastfeeding counselling to mothers of Low-Birth-Weight Children will also be covered under this project. Additionally, Female Health Workers (ANM – Auxiliary Nurse Midwife) will be provided with a digital haemoglobinometer to track the haemoglobin levels of pregnant women in Taluka. We look forward to the community's support in this endeavour."
The project will prioritize enhancing the capacity of healthcare personnel giving special attention to anganwadis to ensure the long-term sustainability of the initiative. This involves providing essential training to frontline health workers, including FHW/ASHA/anganwadi workers and, RBSK medical officers.