No other Munni should die…

Munni was a 3 year old girl – the first child of her parents – living in the remote block of district Shrawasti in Uttar Pradesh. A playful child content with her hair clips and dolls. But, alas! this summer she was taken away forever. The season of intense heat brought with it pain and suffering for little Munni. Severe dehydration and lack of access to information or care took its toll. Munni couldn’t survive the ordeal and brought heartbreaking gloom for her parents.

Like Munni, about 260,000 children are not able to celebrate their 5th birthday due to their untimely deaths from pneumonia and diarrhea. The most unfortunate part is that these completely preventable diseases are taking a very high toll on children under-five and apart from personal loss it also places a huge economic burden on families.

Diarrhea and Pneumonia are a barrier to child survival, but also to children’s ability to thrive and reach their potential. Many of the causes and solutions for childhood pneumonia and diarrhea are inter-related, and thus, this plan proposes an innovative approach for integrating the health interventions for these two diseases. The interventions will be packaged under the globally advocated “prevent, protect and treat” framework.

MAMTA proposes the implementation of these interventions with focus on addressing the above-mentioned gaps in Ikauna block of district Shrawasti of Uttar Pradesh. Shrawasti encounters highest deaths of under-five children. It has a population of 1,117,361 with 5 administrative blocks. The under-five population estimates for the district are 1,11,736.

For implementation in Ikauna block of the District Shrawasti Rs. 30,00,000 for 2019. With this intervention 25,000 under 5 children can be saved.