Locally-grown vegetables and fruits are helping to counter malnutrition in 200 tribal villages in India

Sunita, just three years old, lives in Moridongri village, near Indore in Madhya Pradesh, and she has been a malnourished child since the day she was born to Hakku and Kalu, both daily wage labourers. “Sunita often fell ill, couldn’t crawl properly and cried a lot. Sometimes we took her to a doctor. We were worried and helpless,” said Hakku, mother to five children. At four months, Sunita just weighed 3.5kg (usually the weight at birth) and today at 3.5 years she weighs 10kg, still four short of a healthy weight. But she’s improving with the help of local social workers and government schemes.