The Business Bytes
TBB BUREAU
BHUBANESWAR, SEPT 01, 2021
Aditya Birla Group company Aditya Aluminium is actively engaged with the people of Rengali Block in Sambalpur district, and working closely with the Odisha Government to create awareness on the importance of nutritious diet.
Aditya Aluminium is among the pledge partners of the Government’s ‘Suposhan’ project. The objective is to generate awareness among the local residents of the six gram panchayats of the Rengali Block on the criticality of healthy food choices and their positive effect.
Elaborating on the initiative, Aditya Aluminum Unit Head Sameer Nayak says, “Through the Suposhan campaign, we have been able to create awareness transcending employee wellness, moving on in the interiors in our model villages of Naikpada and Narupada. We reach out to pregnant women, lactating mothers, adolescent girls and children across all age groups. We have distributed nutrition kits to pregnant and lactating mothers, mobilized nutrition garden support from OLM (Odisha Livelihood Mission) under Mo Bagicha Abhiyaan, part of the government initiative under Poshan Mission, and distributed fruit bearing plants saplings for backyard fruit orchard development.”
Furthermore, Aditya Aluminium is providing multivitamins recommended by pediatricians for children. A nutrition kit consisting of health drink, jaggery and soya chunks is being supplied. The company reaches out to mothers, explaining how nutritious meals with simple ingredients can be made and served at home. Every household is given a chart of cooked meal menu to make the process easy for them.
In the project area, the team found 30 severely malnourished Anganwadi children. These kids are now being nurtured to get healthy again. To measure the progress, they use the body mass index benchmarking and the ICDS chart that lays down the weight specifics in line with the height and age.
“The company is complementing the government’s efforts in this direction. The problem of malnutrition and anemia is mainly due to lack of awareness on the subject in the community. The women who take care of the family’s well-being are themselves either working as wage labourers or are completely unaware of the actions that should be taken to improve their Red Blood Cells to fight anemia and malnutrition,” says Leelabati Nag, Child Development Program Officer, Rengali.
According to Aditya Aluminum Head (HR) Dr. Vivekanand Mishra, the Suposhan Project is a decisive step towards achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs) in various forms — SDG 2 – Zero Hunger, SDG 3 – Good Health and Wellbeing and SDG 5 – Gender Equality. “COVID-19 did delay the interventions as meetings could not be organized. But sooner than later, Aditya Aluminium will achieve key milestones as a partner of change for its key stakeholders,” adds Dr. Mishra.
Aditya Birla Centre for Community Initiatives and Rural Development Chairperson Rajashree Birla envisions actively contributing to “the social and economic development of the communities in which we operate. In doing so, build a better, sustainable way of life for the weaker sections of society and raise the country’s human development index.”
The Aditya Birla Group’s touchpoints in Odisha are in excess of 5 lakh, spread over five districts spanning 128 villages.
