CTRD

Tribal Development Department, Government of Maharashtra offered ‘Adiwasi Utthan Karyakram’ (AUK) (Comprehensive and Sustainable Development of Tribal People of Maharashtra) to the two voluntary organizations, namely Comprehensive Rural Health Project (CRHP), Jamkhed, headed by Dr. Rajnikant S. Arole and The Maharashtra Association of Anthropological Sciences (MAAS), Pune, headed by Prof. Ramchandra K. Mutatkar. In the year 2004, MAAS and CRHP, Jamkhed were jointly offered a project by the Tribal Development, Government of Maharashtra as a result of suo motu injunction about the deaths of tribal children supposedly due to malnutrition / under-nutrition by the Bombay High Court. The programme focused on developing a model to reduce malnutrition among tribal children in tribe dominant seven districts and nine tehsils all over Maharashtra covering all major tribal groups. The project was implemented during January 2005 to 31 March 2013. There were six major components of AUK such as Health, Education, Livelihood, Community Empowerment, Societies Registration No: MAH/1122/Pune/1976 * Public Trust Registration No.: F-921/1976 * FCRA No. : 83930125 * Exemption under section 80G of I. T. Act 1961 Page 2 Orientation and Training and Cultural Identity. Confidence Building and Capacity Building of the people have been the two major approaches around which the activities were planned.

Achievements of Adivasi Utthan Karyakram(AUK):

1. AUK through its project activities catered to 12 main tribal communities in Maharashtra spread over 9 tribal dominant taluks in 7 diverse districts.

2. AUK successfully reduced undernutrition among under 3 years’ children (focusing on under 2) in all project sites.

3. Capacity building of tribal human resource at village and hamlet-levels (555 tribal volunteers) found to be the most yielding outcome of AUK and through these ‘agents of change’ all the expected project outputs and outcomes have been achieved.

4. Health interventions directly influencing undernutrition such as ready-to-eat nutrition supplement (Sattu) for the age group 6 months to 2 years, Sattu fortified by Ayurvedic tonic drugs given to lactating women, providing one square meal a day to tribal pregnant women, etc. and in-directly influencing undernutrition such as medicinal kit box for common ailments, training of Dais and other tribal women about birthing practices, providing warm wrappings (Jhabale, Dupte, Topde) for new born baby, etc. were well accepted by tribal communities.

5. Immediate registration after pregnancy with the ANM and spot feeding of pregnant women with one time full meal in houses of AUK volunteers showed positive effect on the birth outcomes as well as birth weights of new born babies.

6. AUK addressed all relevant public health issues such as late registration of pregnancies, inadequate food-intake during pregnancy, no or less access to medicines which are essential to take care of minor ailments, no or less access to integrated child development services, etc.

7. Capacities of Dais, Gram Panchayat members, Vaidu, etc. were substantially increased. Skills capacity-building of tribal youth in livelihood and income generation activities enabled economic independence.

8. Capacity of tribal volunteers to take weights, fill in growth charts and mobilise people for action has increased. Capacities of tribal volunteers and tribal communities to access Government schemes have increased.

9. Direct community participation and involvement in AUK are well demonstrated through all the major project activities such as growth monitoring, warm wrappings to new-born, ready-to-eat food supplementation for tribal children, fortified Ayurvedic lactogenic supplements for lactating mothers, kitchen garden, medicine distribution, etc.

10. Some of the AUK activities like Kitchen Garden, Supplementary ready-to-eat food, clothing for new born, etc. have now been introduced in some ITDP centres.

11. Funding commitment through GR, periodic joint monitoring and review meetings made AUK as one of the illustrative examples of Govt.-NGO partnership model.

Projects in AYUSH

Prof. R.K. Mutatkar chaired the Working Group on “AYUSH in Public Health” for XIth Five Year Plan of India. Under National Rural Health Mission, Department of AYUSH offered an assessment project: “Mainstreaming of AYUSH in Public Health” to MAAS. Project was implemented in 4 States of India viz. Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra. MAAS nominated as National Coordinator for such research projects in India. In April 2010, MAAS was accorded Centre: AYUSH in Public Health under Public Health Initiative Scheme of then Department of AYUSH, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. Under this initiative, the first of its kind in India, MAAS’s Centre-AYUSH in Public Health worked in the States of Himachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra. The project was concluded in 2015.