Nutrition in COVID-19 times
Tune in to watch Ravi Bhatnagar, Director, External Affairs and Partnerships, Reckitt, talk about Nutrition in COVID-19 times.
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00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:03 My stand on this is like a lot has to be done.
00:20 More accelerated progress is required.
00:23 Until and unless we do vaccination
00:26 of the last mile workers who are there in the Anganwadis,
00:30 who are there in the midday meal centers,
00:32 if they are not vaccinated, the chances
00:38 of derailment of the basic services of the food access
00:42 will increase many folds.
00:45 For the last mile delivery, you need
00:47 to have the people who are healthy.
00:50 Children is a very, very sensitive age group
00:53 to whom anyone will be responding to.
00:56 So unlike many other things, like this vaccination
01:03 needs to be the utmost priority, we
01:06 are also seeing like food security will also
01:10 be getting impacted because people who are giving the food,
01:16 if they are falling sick, because now this wave 2
01:20 of COVID has not just impacted the urban India,
01:23 it has impacted Bharat as well.
01:24 And villages are getting impacted.
01:27 It has reached there.
01:29 And midday meal schemes, actually,
01:32 which goes to the aspirational districts in India,
01:35 we have 117 aspirational districts,
01:37 which are in the various parts of the country.
01:40 So a lot needs to be actually re-thinked about,
01:45 like how to address these nutritional challenges.
01:49 So supply chains are one of the mechanisms,
01:52 like who will supply the food, who will give the food,
01:56 who will deliver the food, who will cook the food,
01:59 who will make sure kids will come.
02:01 And one of the major drawbacks, which I see at this moment
02:06 is in the absence of vaccination,
02:11 in the absence of COVID-appropriate social
02:14 behaviors, it will be very, very difficult
02:16 to get a congregation of kids at one place
02:19 where the midday meal was getting served.
02:23 Maybe India has to redesign its midday meal program,
02:27 where a lot of kids have not to come at one place.
02:29 And instead, food is getting delivered
02:32 to the household level.
02:36 Secondly, this whole COVID has also
02:39 impacted not just food security or the food issues.
02:43 It has also impacted the early learning goals.
02:47 Because while midday meal program and other programs
02:50 which are related to the food security,
02:52 kids were meeting each other.
02:54 Kids were playing with each other.
02:56 Kids were using their motor skills.
02:59 Kids were trying to know each other.
03:02 Kids were trying to know how to socialize.
03:05 Really, this whole midday meal program
03:09 and the program for the food security for the kids
03:11 is not just a food program.
03:14 It's much beyond that.
03:16 So India really needs to devise about the mechanisms, which
03:21 will be the mechanisms to reach out to the communities,
03:24 to the kids, so that the early learning development
03:28 goals of the kids, along with the food security,
03:31 is taken care of.
03:37 If someone like today, I took my first dose of COVID.
03:42 So very interesting part is how India has digitally evolved
03:46 this.
03:47 So my Arogya Setu tells me I am partially vaccinated,
03:52 because my first dose is done.
03:54 Beautifully, it also shows me when
03:57 is my second dose actually pending,
04:00 in 82 days or something it is saying.
04:03 So technology needs to be leveraged,
04:05 so that India and Bharat both get open.
04:09 And demand and supply functions come into the full play
04:13 amid COVID-19.
04:15 And we need to be very sure.
04:17 We all, like Outlook as a media group,
04:20 Rekit as a consumer company, we all come together.
04:23 And we propagate the idea of SMS,
04:26 which is safe hands, social distancing,
04:30 wearing the mask on the top of that, vaccine for all.
04:34 [TYPING]
04:37 Kids who have lost their parents,
04:44 now you have the double orphan kids.
04:46 You have maternal orphan kids.
04:47 You have paternal orphan kids.
04:50 Who is going to take care of those kids who are very small?
04:52 There are some of them who are in the age group of 0 to 5.
04:57 They have the food.
04:58 They have the food needs.
05:00 They have the needs like food security.
05:04 They need the caregivers.
05:05 There needs to be more programs towards that,
05:08 so that the kids who have lost their parents--
05:12 I'm hearing a lot of interesting announcements
05:14 by the state of Bajarkhand, state of Chhattisgarh,
05:17 and many others, which are talking about,
05:19 we will give the education to the kids lifelong.
05:23 That's great.
05:24 But kids' need is OK.
05:26 Education is a need.
05:27 But better health and emotional well-being,
05:33 these are all the rights of the kids.
05:35 We need to work around it together.
05:37 [TYPING]
05:40 The vaccine will be available every year
05:49 at one point of time.
05:51 You remember the days of polio.
05:54 How difficult it is.
05:55 India has different kind of terrains.
05:58 22,000 kilometers plus is just on the islands
06:01 at the deltas in India.
06:03 Then you have the hilly terrains like Leh, Ladakh,
06:05 and others.
06:06 Then you have the terrains which are under the water
06:08 for more than six months.
06:10 You have places like Sundarband, 24 North Parganas,
06:14 and South Parganas, where the challenges are
06:17 very, very different.
06:18 Like in Puri, in Gubneshwar, in Odisha, in West Bengal,
06:24 India is culture-rich, as well as
06:26 the issues of each region are also different.
06:29 We're trying certain pilots.
06:30 And definitely, we will be coming out
06:32 with some good practices on how to improve the service
06:37 delivery on nutrition.
06:39 And in the first 1,000 days during the COVID-19,
06:43 we have done some studies.
06:44 We're trying to understand the subject much better.
06:47 Because as most of the people were also unaware of,
06:50 the second wave will be so devastating.
06:54 We also felt like that.
06:58 All the preparedness was there, but it was not
07:01 to the extent which was required to deal with the situation.
07:04 But we were very sure we will be having very motivated staff.
07:08 We will be taking care of the people who work with us
07:11 and who we work with.
07:14 By the grace of God, there is not
07:16 a single mortality among a very, very huge field force
07:21 with whom we work with.
07:24 I was still in February.
07:25 There was a situation of panic in Amravati.
07:28 A new stain has come.
07:30 And that is the same stain what India is talking about now.
07:33 Preparedness was there.
07:34 We were able to mobilize the resources.
07:36 We were able to put the resources.
07:38 And I'm very sure, in the long way,
07:40 once our model is culturally adaptive,
07:44 others can also come forward and can learn.
07:47 But this is time to action fast, learn fast, and move on,
07:51 and share it with others.
07:52 Very, very actively participating
08:06 in terms of creating an enabling environment for India
08:10 to respond to COVID-19.
08:13 Someone is doing some philanthropic efforts
08:16 in terms of setting up the oxygen plants.
08:20 Someone is doing some philanthropic effort
08:22 to set up the ICU beds.
08:24 Someone is helping with the oxygen concentrators.
08:26 Someone is doing something with the oxygen ventilators.
08:31 So there are different people doing
08:32 their different, different stuff, which is all
08:34 for the nation building.
08:36 I'm not sure from where this comes.
08:39 India will be spending less on the CSR.
08:41 India is actually spending more.
08:43 And this government has been kind enough
08:45 to allow a lot of corporates and actually everyone
08:48 to spend the monies and put monies behind this COVID-19
08:51 readiness and preparedness.
08:54 And, you know, like, whomsoever has anything,
08:57 people have opened the doors.
08:58 Like, you know, the people who--
09:01 like the malls.
09:03 Malls are giving you the entry for the, you know,
09:06 walk-in, you know, these vaccinations.
09:09 [TYPING]
09:12 You gather your thoughts and you get motivated.
09:20 As soon as you see the leaders in the industry,
09:23 they motivate you.
09:24 Like our global leadership, Laxman Narasimhan,
09:27 like, you know, you follow him.
09:29 I follow him, like, the actions and steps that he has taken.
09:32 Being an Indian, like, he's there in the UK.
09:36 And he's as much bothered as my parents are about my well-being.
09:40 He's as much bothered for the others in the company
09:43 and even for our other stakeholders and shareholders.
09:46 When he calls us, he asks us about, like, you know,
09:50 how our people are doing.
09:51 Maybe, like, you know, not the specific names.
09:54 He knows very little people.
09:56 But definitely there is an intent, intent to serve,
10:00 intent to provide the last-mile service.
10:02 [TYPING]
10:05 [END PLAYBACK]
10:10 This is an amazing, amazing campaign, yeah?
10:14 And I wish Outlook all the best.
10:16 Thank you so much.
10:17 [MUSIC PLAYING]