Bhubaneswar: The District Social Welfare Office (DSWO) Keonjhar has signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) for expansion of Creches (Ama Kalika) in all the mining affected blocks of the district to combat stunting, wasting and underweight among the infants between 6 months to 3 years.
The MoA has been signed in the presence of Keonjhar Collector Ashish Thakare and other district administration officials. The district administration has planned to scale up Creches from the existing 60 to more than 700. In the first phase, three agencies have signed the MoA. The project will be funded under District Mineral Foundation, Keonjhar.
Crèches or Mamta Gharas were first setup in 2018 at 60 remote and nutritionally vulnerable pockets in the mining affected areas of Keonjhar to address acute malnutrition among the children from majorly tribal communities.
Children at Creches are provided daily with three nutritious meals along with early childhood education and a safe environment to achieve age-appropriate milestones which helps in their growth.
The initiative over the years has benefited more than 3700 children. Post admission in the Creches, reduction of underweight to 18%, severe underweight to 27%, wasting to 57% and severe wasting to 87% has been observed in the children.
