Bhubaneswar, Jan. 24: Children living in recurrent flood-affected areas have twice the chances of suffering from chronic malnutrition in comparison to their counterparts in unaffected areas, a study conducted by Voluntary Health Association of India-Aparajita (VHAI) revealed.
A study of 328 children, aged between six and 59 months, showed that 11.4 per cent of them were severely stunted in the flooded areas. The percentage in non-flooded areas was 6.5.
“Being stunted means the children are short for their age, but not necessarily thin. This is a condition of chronic malnutrition,” said Shisir Ranjan Dash, the principal researcher for this project.
Seventeen other factors under the broad heads of demographics, socio-economic, water security, and immunisation were used to detect other risk factors that caused stunting.
This study was carried out in the disaster-prone Jagatsinghpur district of the state under the MICRODIS project to assess the impact of disasters on vulnerable communities.
“MICRODIS is funded under the European Communities’ sixth framework programme and is operational in 11 countries of Asian and European regions. VHAI collaborated with Universite Catholique de Louvain, Belgium, Universitats Klinikum Heidelberg, Germany and other research universities of international repute to organise this study,” said Dash.
As part of the programme, the research was carried out in five blocks of Jagatsinghpur district, which were affected by recurring floods.
The survey covered 758 families in the flood-affected areas and 816 families from flood unaffected areas in 32 villages in the blocks of Kujanga, Balikuda, Tirtol, Ersama and Biridi.
This survey was carried out in 2008 and again in 2009 and 2010 to compare the impacts of disaster in the long run.
During the survey period, one-fourth of the total 4,952 population covered under the survey in flood-affected areas were suffering from fever with chikungunya symptoms.
The sanitation condition was deplorable in the post-flood period accounting to 81.61 per cent open defecation. The study also analyses the preparedness of health system in the area and impacts on socio-economic determinants.
The dissemination workshop held here was attended by health and family welfare minister Prasanna Acharya and revenue and disaster management minister Surya Narayan Patro, along with Aurobindo Behera, principal secretary (forest and environment). A photo exhibition reflecting the process adopted in this research initiative was also put on display.
“The state government is formulating and implementing several schemes to improve the health condition and nutrition of the people in various parts of Orissa. But the study result shows that there is not much impact in change of people’s health condition,' said Acharya.
“Such research findings should not be confined to this workshop rather there should be more serious efforts both at the end of government and civil society to spread awareness among people and bring change in the health service seeking behaviour. The health department will give due attention to strengthen the health care system in emergency time,” the Minister said.
