Caritas India will soon roll-out an integrated programme for helping the Korku community to free themselves from chronic malnutrition and hunger. The six-year intervention ‘SABAL’ will be implemented in the Korku dominated Khalwa block of Khandwa in Madhya Pradesh and Melghat region of Amravati district in Maharashtra.

Caritas India’s intervention comes as a response to the startling findings of the National Family Health Survey-4 (NHFS-2015-16) which highlighted the grave situation of hunger and malnutrition prevailing in Khandwa and Amravati districts, which have a sizeable population of Korkus.  NFHS-4 reported that 49.9% of Under 5 years of age (U5) children of Khandwa are ‘underweight’, 23.2% are ‘wasted’ and 46.8% of children are ‘stunted’.

For implementing SABAL programme in 93 villages of Korkus, Caritas India will partner with Khandwa Diocesan Social Services (KDSS) Khandwa, Spandan Samaj Seva Samiti Khandwa (SSSS) and Jeevan Vikas Sanstha (JVS) Amravati. Fr. Frederick D’souza, Executive Director Caritas India, said that the upcoming programme is a comprehensive solution to the chronic hunger and malnutrition of Korkus.

“Korku community has historically been impoverished by several intertwined factors like hostile climatic conditions, crop failures, dipping agriculture productivity, decline of traditional agriculture practices and isolation from the development mainstream”, Fr. Freddy said. Caritas India will seek to identify and promote community-based solutions for the curse of pervasive hunger and malnutrition in the Korku dominated areas, he added.

The programme will be implemented with financial support from the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) of German Government and technical support from Caritas Germany. It will work towards reviving traditional agriculture systems, particularly millets and forest-based food systems, so that Korku community will have access to sufficient nutritious food throughout the year. Apart from this, the programme will promote sustainable agriculture practices with viable soil and water conservation measures.

Caritas India will also increase people’s participation in grassroots-level governance processes so that entitlements of health services are enjoyed, in full measure, by the Korku community.

SABAL will endeavour to address the major nutritional problems of public health significance in the Korku areas like Protein Energy Malnutrition (PEM), Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) and iron deficiency anemia (IDA).

“Since the Satpura ranges are frequently hit by drought and drought-like situations preschool children, adolescent girls, women of reproductive age group and the elderly of Korku community have become the most vulnerable segments of population, nutrition-wise, in both Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra”, Dr. Saju MK Zone Manager-West Caritas India said.