Based largely on the successful strategies of earlier CLR interventions with NGO partners in Maharashtra and several other states, we initiated a pilot project called ‘Sajag’ which aimed to educate rural caregivers on ways to strengthen home-based holistic care of children up to three years of age. Implemented across 164 villages of Rajnandgaon block of Chhattisgarh, Sajag was a joint effort of the Dept of Health, State Literacy Mission Authority (SLMA) and Dept of Women and Child Welfare Development (WCD) with CLR as the technical resource agency.

The government departments deployed 33 Master Trainers (MT) who trained over 650 village communicators (VC) through a cascade to conduct home visits for educating parents on caregiving. CLR conducted TOTs and provided supportive supervision to MTs and VCs on a sample basis.

Our Caregiver Education Package was adapted for a large cascade-based training process. As a part of this endeavour, we developed a booklet and a wall calendar with desirable contextualized caregiving messages and corresponding photographic visuals.

There is substantial evidence of positive change amongst caregivers and children who have participated in the Sajag intervention. Several malnourished children have improved in their nutritional status (weight); some have moved up from severe to moderate malnourishment or normal levels. Some mothers mentioned that the older children now engaged more with their younger siblings and this helped in building a stronger bond between them. In some families, it was also observed that fathers now took more interest in the upbringing of children.