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The campaign, which runs until August 18, 2021, is supported by Nutrition International
The ongoing DASTAK Abhiyan, launched in Madhya Pradesh, is an approach to providing a package of basic health and nutritional services to combat under-5 mortality and morbidity in the state. The campaign, which runs until August 18, 2021, is supported by Nutrition International.
Nutrition International supported the campaign in planning and strategizing, orienting, monitoring, reviewing and developing information and communication materials.
DASTAK Abhiyaan, led by the state’s Department of Health and Women’s and Child Development, aims to proactively identify and promptly treat malnourished children and, with the help of frontline staff including ANMs, ASHA and Anganwadi staff, to conduct basic health and provide nutrition services to children under the age of five. Frontline staff are knocking door-to-door to identify families with children up to five years of age and screen them for common illnesses such as diarrhea, severe anemia, severe acute malnutrition, and this time even COVID-19. Once a type of malnutrition or illness is diagnosed, arrangements are made for its referral and treatment. Via DASTAK Abhiyaan, the frontline staff also distribute iron and folic acid syrup to prevent anemia, packets of oral rehydration solution (ORS) and zinc tablets to treat diarrhea and provide the child with vitamin A.
Since 2006-07, Nutrition International has been expanding its technical expertise to support the government in the successful implementation of DASTAK Abhiyan.
Mansi Shekhar, Representative of Nutrition International’s State Program for Madhya Pradesh, said, “Nutrition International is proud to partner with the Madhya Pradesh government this year to enable DASTAK Abhiyan in 52 districts and serve 8.1 million children 177,000 front workers to be reached. We are also helping train government officials to use the digital field monitoring tool, which enables real-time monitoring of the campaign. “
A new feature of this year’s DASTAK Abhiyaan is the digitization of the field monitoring tool. Nutrition International, in partnership with the National Health Mission (NHM), has developed a digital field monitoring tool that enables real-time monitoring of program activity in all 52 districts of Madhya Pradesh and helps identify areas of underperformance, thereby effectively reviewing the program and Develop strategies to remove obstacles. In addition to developing the tool, Nutrition International has also assisted in training state and district level officials and sharing data analysis with the government for timely and corrective action. This digital tool is designed in such a way that it can also be accessed offline, so that data entry is possible even with an inconsistent internet connection.
The Ministry of Health closely monitors and reviews the DSTAK Abhiyan using the digital monitoring tool through back checks and spot checks of the meetings held in the villages.
Dr. Mahesh Malviya, Chief Medical and Health Officer, Neemuch said when he shared his thoughts on the campaign: “The nice thing about DASTAK Abhiyaan is that it reaches every child under five in the village to their doorstep, which leads to care Health and nutrition services through the existing workforce in the Health and Women’s and Child Development departments. With this program we want to improve the most important determinants of child mortality. “
Madhya Pradesh has a high growth retardation of 42%. 3.3 million children under five are stunted and 2.7 million are wasted. The state-run DSTAK Abhiyan offers the opportunity to identify cases of severe malnutrition and to combat them at an early stage.
