Attappady kids deprived of nutritious food

KOZHIKODE: The 1,500-odd under-3 malnourished children of Attappady tribal settlement have been deprived of ragi- rich nutritious food for  the last five months.

The lack of a scientifically packaged system caused the stoppage of food supplement, ‘Amrutham-2’ which was an instant hit among the children since its launch in 2014.

“Amrutham-2 was distributed in a plain packet without displaying the ingredients. This caused its  non-checking  in the laboratory in Chennai.

The distribution has been stopped following an order from the district medical office,” said Attappady child development project officer (CDPO), J. Mayalakshmi.  

Amrutham-2 was designed exclusively for Attappady unlike Amrutham-1 which is being distributed in the whole state with  three lakh children as beneficiaries daily.

“Amrutham-2 has more ragi content which is specific to the taste buds in Attapaddy. Being  few in numbers, Nutrimix, which has been entrusted with the packaging did not have separate three-layer packing for Amrutham -2,” added the CDPO.

Earlier, three kg of Amrutham-1 and a kg of Amrutham-2 were distributed to kids in a month. Now, the distribution is four  kg of Amrutham -1 only. These food supplements are high in protein and calorie content to help the malnourished children.

After the stoppage of Amrutham-2, only acutely malnourished children are getting the same ingredients (ragi, black gram dal, green gram dal, soya bean, sugar and wheat) as in the food supplement through the state-sponsored Nutrition Rehabilitation Centre (NRC) scheme. 

The food supplement was  prepared by Dr. Neelofar Illias Kutty, Assistant Chief Technical Officer, Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Kasargod.