Indigenous peoples are among the poorest and thus the most threatened segment of the world’s population in terms of social, economic and environmental vulnerability. Along with other stressors, food and nutritional insecurity is still a concern in Odisha State in India. Currently, the state is dealing with burdens of undernutrition which is especially common in tribal regions. To address this issue, the Government of Odisha has launched several nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive schemes and interventions in recent years. One such major scheme is the Supplementary Nutrition Programme (SNP) under the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) which aims to improve the health and nutrition of children aged 6 months to 6 years, as well as pregnant and lactating women and adolescent girls. The government is promoting nutrition by providing hot cooked meals and take-home rations, which are supplied through about 72,000 Anganwadi Centers (Child Care Institutes) situated in each and every village of the state. With a common goal of enhancing the nutritional outcomes from aquatic foods and assisting in accelerating progress on reducing malnutrition in hard-to-reach tribal communities, WorldFish in partnership with ICAR-CIFT and with funding support from USAID, has provided technical support the Women and Child Development Department, Government of Odisha and Mayurbhanj District Administration to pilot the inclusion of dried small fish-based products in the SNP during 2021. This entailed blending of small fish powder in hot cooked meals served to children aged 3 to 6 years and addition of packaged and certified dried small fish in take-home rations for pregnant and lactating women and adolescent girls aged 11 to 18. Based on a Government approved Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), the pilot was implemented in 50 Anganwadi Centers of Kaptipada block, Mayurbhanj district for 6 months during April-September 2021. This paper describes the process followed and field results achieved from the pilot. This is a groundbreaking and unique case of incorporating fish-based products in the government ICDS meal program (SNP) to address undernutrition challenge in the state. Based on the beneficiary community feedback and acceptance of dried fish-based products in SNP, as well as an enhanced understanding congregated from the pilot, we strongly advocate adoption of this nutrition-sensitive approach at the policy level in other Indian states and thus speedily scaled to ameliorate the rampant and humongous undernutrition challenge.
Keywords: Dried small fish, small fish powder, malnutrition, Supplementary Nutrition Programme, fish-based nutrition