Nutrition Education and its Impact-A Study of Western Uttar Pradesh

Lack of awareness about the dietary requirements and nutritive value of different food stuffs is the main contributory cause for the widespread occurrence of malnutrition among school going children, pregnant women, lactating mothers and other vulnerable section of the community. Malnutrition (under nutrition) amongst women is one of the prime causes of low birth weight babies, and is significant contributor of infant mortality. So, it is necessary to equip the individual to make judicious food choices for health and well-being through nutrition education. Good nutrition is vital for the achievement of the maximum genetic potential of the population. Taking this fact into consideration, the present study was conducted in 20 villages, 5 in each district of Baghpat, Muzaffarnagar, Gautam Budh Nagar and Bulandshahr of western Uttar Pradesh, with an aim to persuade farm women to adopt and sustain improved nutrition and health practices and to take their own decisions, both individually and collectively, to improve their nutritional and health status and environment. From each villages, 20 farm women were randomly selected. The data were collected from 400 farm women, with the help of interview schedule about their background information, dietary awareness and dietary practices, knowledge regarding personal hygiene and sanitation, agents of contamination, diarrhoea: its causes and prevention. After imparting the nutrition and health education the same schedule was again administered to test the nutritional and health knowledge. A significant difference was observed in the score of pre and post-test of nutrition education intervention. Hence, nutrition education programme should become a part of the community.