SAAMAR CAMPAIGN

SAAMAR CAMPAIGN

Subject : Governance

Context : The Jharkhand government announced the launch of SAAMAR (Strategic Action for Alleviation of Malnutrition and Anemia Reduction) campaign to tackle malnutrition in the state.

Concept :

• The campaign aims to identify anaemic women and malnourished children and converge various departments to effectively deal with the problem in a state where malnutrition has been a major problem.
• SAAMAR has been launched with a 1000 days target, under which annual surveys will be conducted to track the progress.
• To tackle severe acute malnutrition children, every AnganwadiCentres will be engaged to identify these children and subsequently will be treated at the Malnutrition Treatment Centres.
• In the same process the anaemic women will also be listed and will be referred to health centres in serious cases.
• All of these will be done through measuring Mid-Upper Arm Circumference (MUAC) of women and children through MUAC tapes and Edema levels, swelling in a small area or the entire body—malnutrition is one of the reasons attributed to this disease.
• Angawadi’sSahayia and Sevika will take them to the nearest Health Centre where they will be checked again and then registered on the portal of State Nutrition Mission.