Overview
A healthy diet is one of the key responses to the rising incidence of non-communicable diseases. Launched in July 2018, ‘The Eat Right Movement’ is aligned with ‘Ayushman Bharat’, ‘Jan-Aandolan’ & ‘Poshan Abhiyaan’. It is an all-encompassing nation-wide campaign with a focus on preventive and promotive healthcare through social and behavioural change on eating healthy and safe food. VHAI is an active & technical partner of FSSAI in the Eat Right Movement.
Eat Right Toolkit
As part of this movement, the EAT RIGHT toolkit has been co-developed by three organizations: Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), Voluntary Health Association of India (VHAI) & National Health Systems Resource Centers (NHSRC). The toolkit is developed with the aim to complement the existing components on preventive and promotive health. It will reach out to the citizens through the channel of Health & Wellness Centres under AYUSHMAN BHARAT platform of the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India.
[show_more more=ReadMore less=Less]The Eat Right Toolkit is built on two broad pillars- Eat Healthy and Eat Safe, delivering clear and simple messages on eating healthy- foods to eat (balanced diet, nutrition during first 1000 days of life and food to avoid (high fat, sugar and salt foods). It also includes crucial components on eating safe which deals with maintaining hygiene (personal and environmental), food safety & food adulteration.The toolkit through its engaging component aims to target front-line health workers as well as local communities. It will be implemented by front-line health workers like ASHAs, Anganwadi workers (AWWs Mid-level health providers and Medical Officers at Primary Health Centers (PHCs) and Health & Wellness Centers (HWCs) This toolkit has been contextualized and translated by VHAI in five languages- Hindi, Punjabi, Oriya, Assamese & Gujarati.[/show_more]
Key Activities
‘The Eat Right India Movement’ by FSSAI, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India is a nation-wide movement with a focus on preventive and promotive healthcare through social and behavioural change on eating healthy and safe food. It is aligned with Government recent initiative’s ‘Ayushman Bharat’, ‘Jan-Aandolan’ & ‘Poshan Abhiyaan’.
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The first pilot training of Eat Right Toolkit was jointly organised by NHSRC, FSSAI & VHAI at Regional Health and Family Welfare Training Centre, Meerut on 6th August, 2019. More than 50 ASHAs, Community health officers (CHOs), Medical Officers attended the one-day training. The pilot training covered the components such as ‘Nutrition During First Thousand Days’, ‘Food Fortification’, ‘Balanced Diet’, ‘Hygiene and Sanitation’ and ‘Food Adulteration’ along with demonstration of simple household tests to check adulteration in food items. Based on the response and the experience of this pilot session, the suggestions were shared with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India for subsequent training sessions & content of the toolkit.
Eat Right Toolkit has been codeveloped by FSSAI, VHAI & NHSRC. VHAI has contextualized and translated the toolkit in five regional languages: Hindi, Assamese, Oriya, Gujarati, Punjabi.
FSSAI has organized Eat Right Mela from 14-16 December at IGNCA, India Gate, New Delhi in collaboration with National Street Food Festival. VHAI was invited as a resource organization to take orientation session on EAT RIGHT toolkit of more than 500 ASHA workers and ANMS, 600 Anganwadi workers and more than 500 nodal teachers of Mid-meal programme.The session included importance of healthy eating, ways to improve the nutrition, how to detect food adulteration at home by simple tests, importance of nutrition during first 1000 days of life, encouraging ASHA & ANMs to spread awareness on healthy eating habits among their communities using Eat Right Toolkit.
VHAI has collaborated with Safe & Nutritious Food@ Schools, an intiative by FSSAI. As a part of this Eat creativity challenge & Swasth Bharat yatra, VHAI has organized nukkad natak and poster competitions on importance of healthy and nutritious food in the schools, where we are implementing School Health Promotion Programme.
Convergence with Government public health programmes is the cornerstone of the Eat Right India Movement. There is tremendous scope for integrating messaging on safe and healthy diets with various programmes being run by Govt. of India such as National Health Mission/Ayushman Bharat, National Programme for prevention and control of Cancer, Diabetes, CVDs and Stroke (NPCDCS), Integrated Child Development Services, SABLA scheme, Pradhan Mantri Matritava Vandana Yojna (PMMVY), Mid-day-Meal, Swacch Bharat Abhiyan, etc. Moreover, Ministry of I&B and ASCI can be important partners for up-scaling of nutrition linked communication. Keeping in view, a roundtable wa organized with various ministries and department at FDA Bhawan, New Delhi on 17th January 2019 to ensure the eat right toolkit’s adoption by various department and ministries.
FSSAI and Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, GOI has given an appreciation award to VHAI for its remarkable work on EAT RIGHT MOVEMENT & SWASTH BHARAT YATRA. The Eat Right Award ceremony was organized by FSSAI at Central Park, Connaught Place, New Delhi at 29th January 2019. Shri Ashwini Choubey, Minister of State for Health and Smt. Preeti Sudan, Secretary Healthy, MoHFW, GOI; Mr. Henk Bekedam, WHO Representative to India were invited as chief guest and guest of honours.
