IIT-Kharagpur to advise nutrition project staff

Midnapore: IIT-Kharagpur (IIT-Kgp) has offered telemedicine assistance to the state government's nutrition project in Jangalmahal.
IIT-Kgp's agriculture and food engineering department will advise doctors, nurses and other staff of the upcoming nutrition rehabilitation centres in Jangalmahal, where malnourished children will be fed two meals daily. Children of six months to five years will be covered under the project.
Two doctors from the department, professor VC Ghosh and Analava Mitra, will give child-specific advice. They will offer their advice to the staff at the centres on what to feed each child after getting an idea of his or her particular ailment.
"Doctors and nurses at the hospitals where these centres will come up will contact us. We will advise them over the telephone on how to solve each child's nutritional problem. Parents of the children can also contact us for such advice. We will also ask the parents to maintain kitchen gardens around their homes and tell them what specific vegetables and low-cost nutritional plants they should grow for their kids' nutrition and better health," said Prof. Ghosh.
The nutrition rehabilitation centres will come up on the premises of block and rural hospitals in 11 backward Jangalmahal blocks of West Midnapore district.
"My department will construct the buildings that will house nutrition rehabilitation centres within the premises of rural and block hospitals in Jangalmahal," said Sukumar Hansda, minister for Pachimanchal Unnayan Parishad.
Such centres have already started operating in Binpur I and Nayagram blocks. Though buildings have been constructed in Salboni block, the centres were yet to operationalize owing to staff problems.
"We will identify kids in the target age group who suffer from malnutrition since birth in the 11 blocks. The identified babies aged six months to five years will be given two meals daily at these nutrition rehabilitation centres. IIT-Kharagpur has offered to help us in this endeavour with expertise," said Dilip Chandra Bera, CMOH West Midnapore.