I explained to him that the multiple micronutrient powder (MNP) was the generic name for the power. I also tried to impress upon him how MNPs were poor substitute for local food-based supplements in solving the problem of micronutrient deficiency.
Instead of promoting local, healthy food options, international organizations are trying to promote “powered medicine”. So far, the government has been a spectator to this promotion of spurious food options, one assumes under the pressure of influential international organizations. It is strange how these bodies have been promoting MNPs but completely overlooked the option of producing nutrient-filled natural food in remote areas.
Lama told me that children in his village didn’t like the vitamin powder the food would turn grey-black when sprinkled with baal vita. The taste, he said, was not good either (despite the claim of the promoters that this powder does not change food taste). Lama was also bemused by the fact that the MNP was being distributed by a private profit-making entity run by the filthy (and influential) rich people, whose have hired four or five ‘volunteers’ in each district.
These volunteers are tasking with contacting health and sub-health posts in order, not to inquire but order them to provide statistics on the use of vitaminised powder. They also make it crystal clear that unless the orders were complied upon without ado, the health and sub-health posts would face ‘severe consequences’.
In response, some health facility in-charges refused to provide the data as they were ‘overburdened’ with other work and had not as yet had the time to prepare the inventory of power nutrients. Some, under pressure, provided false information that all children were enthusiastically taking the supplement, while the fact is that an overwhelming number of children simply hate it.
It will be wrong to replace our traditional nutrient-rich food with supplements of questionable quality that come in fancy packages.
According to Lama, in his area only two malnourished children had been discovered in the span of one year. He had treated them by providing them with locally-produced potato, buckwheat and vegetables. One has now completely recovered and the other is also showing steady improvement in his health. “Why do we need this baal vita when we have clearly better options?” Lama asked me. I could not any answer to his query.
Now, the question that haunts me is: Why are these organizations forcing (through incomplete and falsified information about the vitamin packets) healthy populations like Phuwal’s catchment village to use medicine which have been tried in many countries without any substantial nutritional achievement, except its anecdotal association with anemia reduction?
After returning to Kathmandu, I talked to another friend of mine, Anita Pandey Gurung (name changed), who works for an INGO that distributes rice in areas where we have enough food but little “rice”. She too does not like the idea of distributing rice and baal vita in remote areas. She also revealed a scary fact: recently, tones of micronutrient powder had been sent to Dolpa and other districts in the Karnali region without even testing their quality.
This could have a potentially dangerous impact on the health of the children who consume it. Ashok Bhurtyal, a public health and nutrition expert, cautions against the indiscriminate distribution of Multi Nutrient Power (MNP) or any other nutraceutical products under the rubric of ‘development aid’. He told me about how the MNPs have failed to live up to their reputation right across South East Asia.
While I visited nutrition rehabilitation centers some time ago, doctors and health workers there told me, in no uncertain terms, that they did not need any packaged food. “We have enough local food that can be used to treat or manage malnutrition. We reject the idea of some international organizations handing out supplements of spurious quality to innocent children,” said one of the doctors.
Another senior manager of a nutrition rehabilitation center pointed out that they were under immense pressure to distribute packaged food in Dolpa and Humla, even so they had resisted.
But not everyone can resist the temptation of working with international organizations which continue to distribute packaged in Humla and Jumla, as the local children have been caught in a vicious cycle of malnutrition and questionable medicine.
All Nepalis need to speak with one voice against this practice which undermines the traditional, healthy food habits promoted by our ancestors. We cannot allow the country to be held hostage to the whims of profit-making foreign enterprises.
The writer is a public health advocate
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