Bites of joy

Laddoo Project comes to the rescue of children in welfare creche and addresses their low nutrition issue.

It’s hard to miss the shrieking laughter of children while passing through Tadiwala Road in the morning. If you follow the noise,it will lead you to Deep Griha Society’s family welfare centre,where over 100 children are cared for in the centre’s creche. On this particular day,a Saturday morning,there’s a particular reason the children are excited they’re waiting for the laddoo lady.

And in walk Meeta Naidu and Ranjana Gokhale,one straining to carry a heavy basket of shiny,brown laddoos,the other calling out Laddoo,laddoo to all the children. What happens after is both heartwarming and humorous. They go to one room full of young toddlers who rush towards them with their hands outstretched for a laddoo,but Gokhale tells them firmly,Everyone will have to seat in a circle and wait for their turn. There is a flurry of activity as the children hurriedly settle into a tight circle,their eyes never leaving the laddoos. Once Naidu steps intio the circle to hand out the sweetmeats,there is utter silence in the room as the children enjoy their treat,their cheeks rounded with the laddoos stuffed in their mouths. By the time Naidu and Gokhale have moved to the next room of children,the first batch of children have polished off their sweets.

We give the children laddoos thrice a week,coconut one day,peanut the other,and ragi the third. They always look forward to it, says Gokhale,a team leader at Deep Griha where the laddoos are more than just a treat. The NGO started the Laddoo Project to fight malnutrition in slum children. Each of these laddoos is packed with protein and iron,which help the children build their health and immunity, she says. Most of the children at the creche are sent there by parents who are daily wage labourers who have neither the time or the resources to sustain nourishment. At the NGO,the chidren are given daily meals with rice,dal,eggs and milk,and laddoos thrice a week. Earlier we used to give them peanuts and jaggery,but we realised that we can make laddoos at the same cost and control the nutrients better. The children also eat the laddoos more readily, she says.

The project’s catchphrase is ‘Ladoo khao,takat badhao,malnutrition bhagao’,a promise which seems to be fulfilled with a 50 per cent improvement in children’s height and weight within six months. The children have report cards tracking their health with parameters is assessed based on body mass index charts developed by the World Health Organisation. Their height and weight is followed up every three months,and their haemoglobin is checked every six months. You can see a marked difference in their health within the first three months, says Gokhale. Every 100 grams of ragi ladoo has 5.21 mg iron and 10.91 grams of protein,while 100 grams of coconut laddoo has 404 kilocalories,a sweet deal indeed.

It takes the NGO’s workers three to four hours to prepare one batch of laddoos for the 262 children spread across their three centres. The laddoos are prepared on alternate days (Mondays,Wednesdays and Fridays) and are distributed the next day. We’re also teaching the children’s parents to make the laddoos now. It costs Rs 2.75 for every laddoo. Parents often give their children five rupees to buy treats like chocolates or chips. Instead,if they give a laddoo,the children will be both happy and healthy, says Gokhale.

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