In India, undernutrition manifests itself very early in life; around one-third of children are already malnourished at birth as a result of prenatal malnutrition brought on by the inadequate nutrition of pregnant women.

To address food and nutrition security, a comprehensive, people-led empowerment approach is required, which includes improving the diets and nutrient intake of children and women through community actions. Sanjivani, a programme of Caritas India, aims to secure food and nutrition security for small and marginal farmers and landless farm-dependent households in Gujarat. It promotes the diversification and maximisation of food crops and the realisation of rights and entitlements.

The program, with its twofold objective, works towards greater food availability, with at least a 30% increase in the yields of food crops and incomes with indigenous, integrated, and climate-resilient farming practices, and the leveraging benefits of government schemes and programmes linked to food security, especially the Public Distribution System (PDS) and Integrated Child Development Schemes (ICDS). The second objective also emphasises empowering communities politically and increasing their access to rights and entitlements related to government-run development and welfare services.

It is very encouraging to see that during the last year, the programme was able to achieve a preference change in the community in favour of food crop cultivation among 1952 project participants. 3227 women farmers have developed nutrition kitchen gardens that have prevented them from purchasing vegetables from the market for the last 4–5 months, which has resulted in savings. The participants have also planted 13,514 nutritionally important saplings of fruit trees in the operational areas. The programme participants have also increased their knowledge of the negative impact of chemical fertilisers and pesticides on the environment, resulting in 1587 project participants having started practising integrated nutrient management (INM) and integrated pest management (IPM). Similarly, 2726 programme participants have adopted traditional farming methods.

These results were presented by the partners during the two-day review and reflection meeting of Sanjivani organised on January 23 and 24, 2023, at the Kripa Training Center in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh. Altogether 19 participants, including 2 Caritas India staff (Program Lead, West Zone, and Programme Associate, Gujarat), 8 directors of the implementing organisation, 8 outreach workers, and a community educator from Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, shared their achievements.

On the good governance front, the programme has facilitated ensuring more and more women’s participation in the Gram Sabhas and the Panchayat. Women and men participating in the programme are increasingly voicing their concerns in the gramme sabha and panchayat. Within one year, more than 4263 applications were sanctioned, and work began in the programme villages. Two special-gram Sabhas were also called by the programme participants. In terms of leveraging the benefits of government schemes, programme participants have increased their knowledge of various government schemes, and approximately 8021 families have been linked to or accessed through various government schemes.

Diocesan social service societies of Rajkot and Baroda have succeeded in registering a micro-economic entity, the Farmers Producers Organization (FPO), and also managed to obtain a licence to stock and sell agricultural produce. Such a micro-economic entity would enable its farmers to escape from middlemen, who generally benefit more than the farmer, who actually work hard for agriculture’s produce. The FPO currently has 517 members (439 male and 78 female), and given the benefits of the organization, many farmers will join it in the near future.