NEW DELHI: A study on diet diversity reveals an increasing consumption trend of junk food among communities engaged in primary sector work which include fishers, brick field workers, saltpan workers, tea and coffee plantation workers, smallholder farmers, and forestry workers.The poor selection of food sources among the communities prefer calories over nutrition as they mostly engage in intense physical work. They prefer to buy products from the nearest shop, sometimes even 20 km away, such as biscuits, nankeens, and chips for their children as young as 3 to 4 years with ₹ 5 or ₹ 10. Further, these stores also serve as centres for daily purchases of tobacco-related items such as chewing tobacco, beedis, and cigarettes.They prefer to buy fewer raw items such as atta, sooji, or pulses and consumption of items such as oil, ghee, and jaggery is quite rare among these communities.The study points out that the majority of communities are migrants who get deceived by the advertisements. The shopkeepers say the visibility of items and branded posters especially featuring images of packaged food items attract them to buy.For example, in the Ganjam district in Odisha, parents are influenced by the image of milk on Parle-G posters and assume it to be healthy for the child. Similarly, Vita Marie biscuits are purchased due to the belief that they contain essential vitamins. The study “Understanding Dietary Behaviours Among Primary Sector Worker Communities in India” was conducted by the non-profit Vitamin Angels India, in partnership with UNICEF to study the unique dietary patterns of primary sector communities across multiple states. The study also explores the barriers they face.The exploratory study also laid bare the vulnerabilities of some communities put at risk nutritionally than others. For instance, the nature of work done by brick-field labourers and salt-pan labourers is marked by intermittent work, intense physical labour, extreme weather conditions and meagre daily wages, posing significant hurdles in accessing adequate, diverse and nutritious foods.Moreover, the migrant status of brick-field labourers further affects their accessibility to government health services and ability to negotiate with employers for improved wages, better working conditions and sanitation facilities.However, members engaged in fishing, agriculture, and to an extent tea/coffee cultivation actively participate in exchanging their yields, to diversify their diet.The study also highlights the patriarchal structures of family and the increased nutrition-related burden on household women. Meanwhile, the study also advocates for capacity building among women about locally relevant nutritional information and knowledge in low-resource settings.
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