AID Jeevansaathi, Kamayani Swami encounters the work of HBP volunteers in Bihar and Tamil Nadu.

How many times should a six month old baby feed? What vitamins and immunities does the first milk (colostrum) contain? When should one start giving water to a baby? Questions such as these never crossed my mind before I visited project sites for AID’s health program under the Hundred Block Plan (HBP) in December 2005. The blocks I visited were Nemili, Vembakkam and Tripvonam in Tamil Nadu and Jehanabad, Manpur, Chand and Dehri blocks in Bihar.

The health program focuses on combating child malnourishment in the age group of 0-5 years and addressing women’s health issues. Volunteers weigh children to identify the level of malnourishment before individually counseling the mothers based on their socio-economic conditions of the family and the condition of the child. The child is weighed again after 6 months and the overall health status reassessed. All records are maintained meticulously as shown in Fig.1. From my conversations with many women health workers, I began to understand why blocks with higher number of female workers fared better in the program.

Often parents are reluctant to weigh their children. In Nemili, a culture of demanding and utilizing government primary health services, which is one of the objectives of HBP, is yet to develop. In the blocks I visited, such problems are being overcome by earning the trust of the communities and generating awareness.


A health worker of HBP, Bihar counseling a mother.

While continuing to learn from limitations and achievements, AID and BGVS are looking to introducing newer components in the program such as adolescent health classes, health melas, and village libraries.