Improving complementary feeding through community-based management of malnutrition in rural India

A baseline survey conducted during 2012 among selected districts with extremely marginalized populations in Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, and Odisha revealed high rates of malnutrition and poor infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices. Among 3,489 children surveyed, 60.2 percent were stunted, 55.1 percent were underweight, and 24.4 percent were wasted. Only 23.9 percent of the children age 6-36 months received appropriate feeding from diverse food groups (AAM Unpublished). To address this issue, in 2012, the Action Against Malnutrition (AAM) project was created to attempt to effectively manage child malnutrition at the community level in seven blocks of these states. It targets children from birth to three years and is implemented collaboratively by the Public Health Resource Society, and the nongovernmental organizations Child in Need Institute, Chaupal, Ekjut, and Idea. The project will end in April 2016 and is financially supported by the Jamsetji Tata Trust.