Bhubaneswar: The Women & Child Development Department today launched ‘Tiki Mausi Kuhe’ comics on Covid Appropriate Nutrition (CAN), Scaling-up of Complementary Feeding Campaign, IEC materials on Covid.
The virtually event was graced by Smt. Tukuni Sahu, Hon’ble Minister, WCD&MS Dept, Principal Secretary, W&CD Dept Smt. Anu Garg, Principal Secretary, I&PR Bishnupada Sethi, Chief of Field Office, UNICEF, Odisha; Director, CSIR – CFTRI, Mysore; Director, ICMR-RMRC, Bhubaneswar; Country Director, UNWFP; Head, Programmes, APPI; Country Representative, BvLF; State Programme Coordinator, UNFPA, Odisha and State Project Manager, Odisha, World Fish apart from Director, ICDS & SW; officers of the Department, all DSWOs/ CDPOs/ Supervisors/ NOP Managers/ DPCs, MAMATA/ Managers of One Stop Centres and Working Women’s Hostels/ Secretaries of Shelter Homes (Swadhar/Ujjwala).
The second wave of Covid 19 has been worst of its kind to have hit mankind. This phase has also seen children and adolescents getting affected. If experts are to be believed, the third wave may be knocking the doors in months. It has, therefore, become highly necessary to reach out to the community with correct information through effective messaging.
It is in this pursuit that, the Department has issued several advisories and also oriented field functionaries on basic precautions, Covid Appropriate Nutrition (CAN), continued services such as IYCF, VHSND, immunisation etc and emerging issues such as child protection, domestic violence etc to address Covid centric challenges head on by engaging the community through our FLWs on preventive and curative aspects of Covid.
Today’s programme was to release & disseminate IEC materials on Covid Appropriate Nutrition (CAN) ; Scaling-up of Complementary Feeding Campaign and other IEC materials on Covid through the protagonist of the Department ‘Tiki Mausi’.
Tiki Mausi
In order to reach out to the community particularly to the women, adolescent girls & children effectively and to sensitize them about the schemes and programmes of the state Tiki Mausi was created as as a protagonist of the Department.
A catalyst for change, Tiki Mausi is empathetic and positive; she loves to talk to people, engage with them and looks forward to the overall development of her community through conviction, confidence and high power energy. She communicates in simple language and reaches out to the people with ease. She is in the forefront in disseminating key messages on health, nutrition, sanitation & hygiene, women & child safety and on their rights. She is a work in progress.
Launch/release of Tiki Mausi driven programmes:
- Launch of ‘Tiki Mausi Kuhe’ comics on Covid Appropriate Nutrition (CAN): Tiki Mausi is to convey CAN messages through a comics book which both will be interesting and informative. In the comics, she will be talking about appropriate breastfeeding, complementary feeding, nutrition & care during pregnancy, nutrition for adolescents and growth monitoring of children, identification of SAM children and their referral to NRCs during Covid.
- Tiki Mausi will also be centre staged in scaling up of the campaign for complementary foods and feeding in 23 districts during Covid-19, based on the successful initial implementation in Koraput, Nabrangpur, Rayagada and Keonjhar districts will be a game changer.
2.1 Along with feeding demonstration in AWCs, telemonitoring of adoption of feeding practices, using RapidPro to assess nutrition service delivery and interpersonal counselling will be cornerstones of these initiatives. Improving complementary foods and feeding will help reduce indicators such as stunting.
3 IEC materials on Covid:
- Posters covering all the Helpline Nos and Toll-Free Nos for women, children and adolescent girls: 181 Women Helpline for domestic violence during Covid 19 lockdown;
- WhatsApp No 8763543013 for registering including violence on women and ChildLine 1098 for violence against children including child marriage.
- Poster on child trafficking during COVID 19: It encompasses different forms of child trafficking, legal provision to combat it and whom to report if anybody come across a case of child trafficking. Various Helpline nos are displayed to report child trafficking.
- Poster on dos & don’ts on child protection during Covid 19: To generate mass awareness among general public on how to help a child affected by Covid. All Helpline nos are displayed to support a child in distress due to Covid with key dos and don’ts. They are: Childline 1098 for addressing any kind of issues related to child rights and protection; 104 for reporting the child protection issues and toll free no 1800-345-4494 of OSCPCR for addressing the issues of child abuse. The poster mentions the manner of identification of children and linking them to child protection services. The poster also discourages illegal adoption. It is proposed to display it in all public places like AWC and GP/block/district office.
- Poster on use of masks in CCIs : To generate awareness among children in CCIs on proper use of mask, cleaning and disinfection of masks and how to ensure people entering CCIs are using mask.
- Poster on handwashing practice in CCIs: The poster is to generate awareness among children in CCIs on hand washing and how not to touch face/nose/eyes and how to use mask while playing.
- Poster on social distancing in CCIs: The poster is to raise awareness among children in CCIs to follow covid appropriate social distancing behaviours by maintaining 6 ft distance during reading, playing and dinning.
The WCD Dept hopes that all these interventions, projecting Tiki Mausi at the forefront will generate adequate awareness in the community and help them handle the pandemic better.