Fathers Play Crucial Role In Childcare

Child Care practices, specifically feeding, are considered a “woman’s job”, and men are hardly engaged in taking care of children due to the socio-cultural mores that exist in society. However, this is changing with the changing role of men as caregivers, and self-help group JEEViKA is playing an exemplary role in raising awareness and educating about men’s important role in childcare. The story of Md. Manjur Alam, a migrant labourer of West Champaran district in Bihar, is a perfect example of this.

Manjur lives in a secluded hamlet in Bhavra village along with his wife Salma Khatun and children. The village is located in Sikta block of West Champaran. The couple has four children, and Rukhsana Khatun is the youngest. Manjur is completely occupied in work and takes care of the financial needs of the family, while Salma takes care of the children. When Rukhsana completed six months, a time when she needed to be given complementary foods as mother’s milk alone is not sufficient for her to grow healthy, her mother kept feeding the baby with milk and biscuits.

This was the situation until Manjur met a friend and saw that his friend and wife were taking good care of their daughter, including feeding. This incident drastically changed his perception about the role of a father in childcare practices, including feeding. He learnt that his friend and wife were feeding their six-month-old daughter with semi-solid foods made of pulses and mashed roti. He realised that though Rukhsana was a month older to his friend’s daughter, she had not been fed with semi-solid foods. When Manjur enquired from his friend where he had learnt about initiating semi-solid food to children, he said his wife is a member of a self-help group (SHG) formed by JEEViKA (formally known as Bihar Rural Livelihood Promotion Society) and got the information through a community event called complementary feeding campaign conducted by the Village Organization (VO is a Community Based Organization that consists of 10-12 SHGs).

Manjur’s friend also showed him a sticker (a communication tool), depicting seven food groups that should be included in children’s diet, that was given to them during the campaign. The friend suggested that Manjur contact the Anganwadi Worker in his area to get more information about complementary feeding. Coincidentally the family was invited to attend the annaprasan divas (that marks an infant's first intake of food other than milk) at the Anganwadi Centre, and Manjur decided to attend along with his daughter Rukhsana as his wife was unwell. To his surprise, he found that many parents and caregivers attended the event with their children, and other community members were also present.

They were given detailed information about complementary feeding, using a poster and were encouraged to feed their babies with foods prepared at the Anganwadi Centre. Manjur was very happy to see that his daughter was enjoying the food given at the Anganwadi Centre and promised himself that he would make sure that his daughter is fed with complementary foods daily. He went back home and shared what he had learnt with his wife, and both decided to support each other in feeding little Rukhsana and see that she grows into a healthy and happy child.

Today Manjur has not only taken a step towards ensuring a healthy childhood for his daughter but has also become a source of inspiration to break gender stereotypes associated with childcare practices. Engagement of men in childcare practices will be the first step towards ensuring a ‘suposhit’ Bihar.

‘’Men should not think that childcare practices are women’s responsibility only. Men also have an important role to play in taking care of their children. I will spread awareness about this in my community,” says Manjur Alam.

JEEViKA is implementing a rural livelihood project in Bihar (Bihar Transformative Development Project) with funding from the World Bank. The project has five major components of which Health, Nutrition, and Sanitation (HNS) is one of the components. The project is implemented across Bihar covering 534 blocks in 32 districts, and the project recipients are women who are the members of self-help groups (SGH) (96,95,597 women organized into 8,35,987 groups). 

HNS activities in the project are specifically aimed at changing behaviours of the recipients (Pregnant, Lactating mothers and Children below 2 from SHG households) with an objective of improving dietary diversification among SHG households and which includes complementary feeding as it is one of the central pillars supporting healthy growth and development of children.

Two important reasons for including complementary feeding (the process of introducing other foods and liquids to the infant, along with breast milk) in the project activities are:

1. The nutrition indicators for children are very poor in Bihar. According to National Family Health Survey (NFHS) IV, 48% of children are stunted, 21% wasted, and 44% are underweight. 34.9% children below 3 years breastfed within 1 hr of birth; Only 53.5% children below 6 months were exclusively breastfed and 30.7% children 6-8 months receive semi-solid food and breastmilk. It is surprising to see that there is a huge drop in complementary feeding from NFHS III to NFHS IV and the children receiving adequate diet is below 10%, reconfirms the direct link between dietary diversity and stunting. Keeping this alarming situation in view, dietary diversity in complementary feeding in children of 6-24 months age has been prioritized in the project.

2. Complementary feeding is a complex set of behaviours, comprising timing of introduction, food choices and dietary diversity, preparation methods, quantity, feeding frequency, responsiveness to infant cues, and safe preparation and storage of foods. Caregiver’s improved attitude and behaviour would address these issues and thereby increase the child’s nutritional status.

The complementary feeding campaign is aimed at changing the behaviours of caregivers, primarily lactating women and their husbands, and mothers–in–law. Improved knowledge of food groups and their importance to be included in regular diet and knowledge on initiation, consistency, adequacy and diversity of complementary food are the central issues of the campaign. It is a one-day activity at VO level and the activities included
 Identification of households with children of 6-11 month old in the VO areas/Villages
 Conduct home visits to identified families along with Health Sub-committee members (They are from VO) and invite the mothers, fathers and in-laws for a video show. Inform them to bring any one food item prepared using foods from at least 4 food groups.
 Conduct a rally with school children using relevant slogans
 Screen the video and orientation on diet diversity and age appropriate complementary feeding using a poster/flip chart
 Demonstration of the recipes and felicitate a mother who is practising good behaviours pertaining to complementary feeding.