Caritas India Sabal programme has succeeded in earning the trust of the District Administration of Khandwa to start egg distribution for 1220 Korku children affected by moderate acute malnutrition (MAM) and severe acute malnutrition (SAM) in the 60 targeted villages of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra in April 2018.

Historically, the Korku community has been battling their existential challenges in terms of education, access to health services, life expectancy, infrastructure, and household incomes. The food and nutritional security programme, which is backed by the German government and Caritas Germany is addressing this chronic malnutrition and hunger among the korku community.

Despite the restrictions in the distribution of eggs in the Anganwadis, the Khandwa Business Forum regularly supplied eggs to the Sabal team at the instruction by the district collector to feed the children at community places outside centres. Within one month of egg consumption, steady health improvements have been observed among the children between the range of 300 – 500 grams.

The sheer increase in the inclusion of protein food among the Korkus in their daily platter through various sources such as catching fishes, prawns, crabs from the nearby rivers and ponds has helped to an extent to address the gaps of necessary nutrient in the children’s diet at home. However, this was not been taken care of through mid-day meals in Anganwadis and schools.

Realizing the impact in the child health, 842 Korkus majorities consisting of women came forward and submitted 14 applications during the 15th August and 2nd October Gram Sabha meetings demanding for restarting egg distribution in Anganwadis. One of the Sabal collective’s mother expressed that “Sabal bhaiya k madad se humne gram sabha me avedan diya tha, aur ab yadi sarkar ye vyavasta shuru karti hai toh bacho ko kuposhan se mukti mil sakti hai” (We had submitted the application in gram sabha with the support of Sabal and if the government start distribution of eggs through anganwadis, our children can be freed from malnutrition). 

Through gram sabhas they urged to include animal protein in their daily diet. Major animal food is available during the monsoon season in the form of fishes, crabs, and prawns but during summers there is a large dearth for these free sources. The regular supply of at least eggs from the Angawadis can help to address the gaps and also to reduce the malnutrition issue of the area to a great extent. Korkus have restored their behaviour of drying various food produces to stock it for summers which include Bengal gram leaves as a source of iron and calcium, bamboo shoots, bottle gourd, tomatoes, etc. They also dry prawns that can be used to make chutney famous as local delicacies.

Considering the demand emerging for reinstating the egg distribution in Anganwadis, the new government of Madhya Pradesh has already shared the verdict and assured to start from 1st April 2020 with a hope to make a small effort to address the grim situation of malnutrition. Despite ire of the opposition demand for re-initiation is getting more stronger and is raised from various parts of the Khandwa district.