Partnering with women collectives for delivering essential women’s nutrition interventions in tribal areas of eastern India: a scoping study

Abstract

BackgroundWe examined the feasibility of engaging women collectives in delivering a package of women’s nutrition messages/services as a funded stakeholder in three tribal-dominated districts of Odisha, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh States, in eastern India. These districts have high prevalence of child stunting and poor government service outreach.MethodsConducted between July 2014 and March 2015, an exploratory mix-methods design was adopted (review of coverage data and government reports, field interviews and focus group discussion with multiple stakeholders and intended communities) to assess coverage of women’s nutrition services. A capacity assessment tool was developed to map all types of community collectives and assess their awareness, institutional and programme capacity as a funded stakeholder for delivering women’s nutrition services/behaviour promotion.ResultsLimited targeting of pre-pregnancy period, delays in first trimester registration of pregnant women, and low micronutrient supplementation supply and awareness issues emerged as key bottlenecks in improving women’s nutrition in these districts. Amongst the 18 different types of community collectives mapped, Self Help Groups (SHGs) and their federations (tier 2 and tier 3), with total membership of over 650,000, emerged as the most promising community collective due to their vast network, governance structure, bank linkage, and regular interface. Nearly 400,000 (or 20% of women) in these districts can be reached through the mapped 31,919 SHGs. SHGs with organisational readiness for receiving and managing grants for income generation and community development activities varied from 41 to 94% across study districts. Stakeholders perceived that SHGs federations managing grants from government and be engaged for nutrition promotion and service delivery and SHG weekly meetings can serve as community interface for discussing/resolving local issues impeding access to services.ConclusionsWomen SHGs (with tier 2 and tier 3) can become direct grantees for strengthening coverage of women’s nutrition interventions in these tribal districts/pockets, provided they are capacitated, supervised and given safe guards against exploitation and violence.

WITHDRAWN: A multi-level qualitative analysis of sensitive-intervention stunting program: from regulation to action

“…Study in Malawi and Bangladesh reported that multi-sector cadres may provide essential elements such as high-quality facilitators for implementing and sustaining health services, high intervention coverage, timely intervention implementation, and supply-side interventions (Colbourn et al, 2013;Fottrell et al, 2013). Women in villages in India who engage and participate in group programs are more likely to use health facilities for maternal and delivery care, are better educated, and are better at addressing local challenges in the implementation of crucial nutrition interventions, according to research (HUNGaMa, 2011;Sethi et al, 2017).…”

Agroforestry diversity, indigenous food consumption and nutritional outcomes in Sauria Paharia tribal women of Jharkhand, India

“…Food‐based strategies such as incorporating traditional and indigenous foods (IFs) obtained locally from the natural environment through farming and wild harvesting can potentially improve dietary diversity and micronutrient deficiencies (Dwivedi et al, 2017; Sethi et al, 2017). Studies have shown a positive impact of production diversity on child anthropometric outcomes (Jones, 2017); better access to diverse and improved diets through home gardening and consumption of indigenous varieties of fruits and vegetables from forests and other nearby areas could likely improve micronutrient status (Berti, Krasevec, & FitzGerald, 2004; Girard, Self, McAuliffe, & Olude, 2012; Masset, Haddad, Cornelius, & Isaza‐Castro, 2012; Tontisirin, Nantel, & Bhattacharjee, 2002).…”

Context for layering women’s nutrition interventions on a large scale poverty alleviation program: Evidence from three eastern Indian states

“…Among women’s agency indicators a relatively high proportion of mothers reported autonomy as well decision making authority, however, acceptance of domestic violence was quite high especially in Odisha and it did not vary much with SHG membership. In our earlier work we had noted that guarding women from domestic violence is critical for successful implementation of women’s centered livelihood programs [5]. The JEEViKA assessment also indicated that the program was successful in mobilizing marginalized women into institutional platforms, such women demonstrated higher levels of empowerment, when empowerment was measured by mobility, decision making and collective action [12].…”

“…It covers all the stages of a woman’s life-cycle with hightened nutritional vulnerability that is adolesence, pre-pregnancy (newlyweds), pregnancy and lactation (mothers of children under-two). Its design was informed by a scoping study that concluded that mature women’s Self- Help Groups (SHGs) and their federations also known as Village Organizations (VOs) and Cluster Level Federations (CLFs) have the potential to manage grants for improving last mile delivery of essential nutrition services for women, provided they are enabled, supervised and provided protection against domestic violence and exploitation [5]. The concept of layering nutrition interventions on economic empowerment programs for women is not new in the Indian context with programs like Kudumbashree and Andhra Pradesh Rural Poverty Reduction Program providing nearly two decades of learnings [6, 7].…”