The Nutri gardens set up under a pilot project to supply nutrient food to the Sahariya tribal population in Baran district in Rajasthan are withering away due to scarcity of water and lack of care during the Covid lockdown. Under the scheme, as many as 55 nutri gardens were created in anganwadi centres whrein 30 in Kishanganj and the rest in Shahabad  in July last year as part of a drive under the nutrition mission POSHAN Abhiyaan.

However, only a little over 20 such gardens are currently sustaining as others have suffered badly from scarcity of water in the area. The ongoing lockdown has further worsened the situation with anganwadi centres being shut and the staff attached to them being engaged in the drive against COVID-19.

Seasonal nutrient plants and vegetables such as spinach, fenugreek, radish, carrot, turnip and bottle gourd were planted in each of the gardens with technical assistance from the Action Against Hunger (AAH), an NGO working in the tribal area, said Harishankar Nuwal, the deputy director of ICDS in Baran.

It is pertinent to note that, with the impact of lockdown, after losing their city jobs during the lockdown, thousands of migrant workers returned to their villages with minimal savings that were quickly exhausted. This was followed by a preventative closure of local weekly markets that fuel the village economy, making survival a daily struggle for the tribal people.

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