Ranchi: The state directorate of social welfare on Tuesday unveiled Social and Behaviour Change Communication, its new strategy to curb malnutrition among the state’s women.The new framework provides a roadmap to promote essential health behaviours through home visits, village health sanitation and nutrition days, community-based events, and targeted interpersonal counselling. It also focusses on involving family members, particularly husbands and in-laws for providing household support to pregnant women.Social welfare director Kiran Kumari Pasi said, “Improving maternal nutrition requires more than service delivery. Sustainable change can only be achieved when families and communities adopt positive nutrition and health practices. The strategy will support convergence among the social welfare, health department and development partners to deliver consistent and impactful messages across the state.”National Family Health Survey – 6 data showed Jharkhand has the highest share of underweight women in the country (29%). A recent statistic from the Union ministry of women and child development’s Poshan Tracker revealed that 17.28% of pregnant women in the state are underweight.At a workshop was held on Tuesday to present findings from recent formative research conducted jointly by the directorate and IPE Global, which states that while Jharkhand has progressed in extending govt benefits to eligible pregnant and lactating women, critical household practices still fall short.The research underlined an urgent need to reinforce key practices, including early pregnancy registration, completing four antenatal care (ANC) check-ups, maintaining adequate dietary diversity, consuming iron-folic acid supplements, tracking appropriate gestational weight gain, taking adequate rest, and securing stronger family backing.
