Improving Nutritional Status of School Going Children Through School-based Nutrition Program in Rajasthan, India

Abstract

This case control research was conducted in the tribal block of Sirohi district of Rajasthan, India to assess the impact of the food supplementation program on the nutritional status of school-going children. With 1:1 matching using parameters of sex and age of children from six villages each, data of 430 1st to 8th grade children, 215 cases and controls each, were analysed. World Health Organization (WHO) Anthro plus tool was used to determine the Weight for Age, Height for Age and Body Mass Index (BMI) for age indicators. Results showed that children who were on the intervention of milk were found to be 1.7 times more active as compare to those not receiving milk. It was also found that the proportion of children with severe malnutrition- in terms of wasting, stunting and underweight – was less among cases as compare to the controls. However, the difference was found significant only for wasting and underweight respectively. Therefore, it was concluded that milk-based interventions have been proved to be successful strategy in combating acute malnutrition among school-going children. More research is needed to evaluate the impact of such interventions on stunting, and to improve the program planning for scaling up and replication.