BHUBANESWAR: To ensure access to supplementary nutrition by all children staying in hard-to-reach villages and hamlets, the state government has launched a programme ‘Pada Prusti Karyakram (PPK)’. Children aged 3-6 years residing in inaccessible pockets and not accessing the Anganwadi Centres will be provided with both morning snacks and hot cooked meals at their village location.
This programme will function as an extension of respective Anganwadi Centres (AWC) in the hard-to-reach villages/hamlets which do not have its own AWC and located more than 2km from the tagged centre and there is geographical barrier for communication. As many as 2543 inaccessible villages/hamlets have been identified in the state for this purpose.
To run this nutrition programme, there should be at least five or more children between the age group of three years to six years in the hamlet/village. This is an initiative to eradicate malnutrition and stunting among kids in inaccessible or hard-to-reach areas where Anganwadi Centres are not available.
According to the guidelines released by the state government, the village level self-help group (VLSHGs) will identify one of the self-help group (SHG) members to work as Pushti Sakhi, who will run the programme in the pada/village. In case there are no VLSHGs, the mothers of the 3-6-year children may identify one from among them as Pushti Sakhi.
Pushti Sakhi will receive dry ration from the nearest AWC, cook and distribute among the kids in her village/hamlet. She will be given a monthly incentive of Rs 1000 per month. She may cook the food at her place or in some other place as decided during the mothers' group meeting. Children will receive morning snacks and hot cooked meals six days in a week.
In the dry ration, the Pushti Sakhi will get rice, egg, dal, oil, potato, onion, salt, saag, vegetables and spices. In the morning snacks, children can get ragi/besan/atta, chuda, groundnuts, jaggery and sprouted moong.
Anganwadi workers will visit and provide handholding support to Pushti Sakhi twice in every month including a fixed day visit for growth monitoring. Field officials of the women and child development department will visit the inaccessible hamlets/villages and monitor the programme.
