Milch cattle owners across the Kongu region (western Tamil Nadu) have for centuries practiced a simple act of generosity. Everyday after milking their cattle they’d leave a quantity of milk in a vessel right outside their farms for the impoverished nursing mothers and infants in the village to use.

Coimbatore South Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) Vanathi Srinivasan has found a way to adapt this age-old tradition for the modern age in both intent and context. Her ‘amudham’ (amrit in Hindi) scheme aims to support nursing mothers and children of impoverished families by providing them with free and fresh cow’s milk everyday.

Project Amudham, a result of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s direct push for Poshan Abhiyan, is an initiative that helps women and children at its core and aims to find a solution to the nutrition deficit problem.

PM Modi had personally directed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Mahila Morcha to take up the issue of poshan (nutrition) across the country and find innovative ways to address the issue of malnutrition. Srinivasan, as President of Mahila Morcha (women’s wing) took it upon herself to find a way to address malnutrition in urban areas such as Coimbatore.

Naturally, for a mother to lactate, she needs nutritious food. For both the mother and the child to combat diseases, they need to develop immunity. To have a well functioning immune system, one must have strength in the body. Cow's milk nutrition is unquestionably required for all of this. Project Amudham is the first of its kind in Tamil Nadu to be launched in Coimbatore South Constituency.

Nirmala Sitharaman, union finance minister was in Coimbatore recently and was all praise for the scheme. The ‘Amudham’ project would go on to strengthen the Prime Minister’s Poshan Abhiyaan scheme, aimed at providing holistic nutrition to mothers and infants, she was quoted as saying.

Implemented in association with Rotary G44 and local grocery store owners, the scheme currently involves about 1,000 beneficiaries who have been given tokens or voucher cards. These can be taken to the local grocery store and exchanged/filled up in return for a quantity of milk everyday.

Nursing mothers signing up at neighborhood anganwadi centers would be eligible for about 250ml of cow’s milk a day. Those not signed up are also welcome to join the scheme via Srinivasan’s Makkal Sevai Maiam. (People’s Welfare Centre)

Speaking about the association with grocery stores Srinivasan said that this delivery channel turned out to be the cheapest and most effective way instead of direct distribution or doorstep delivery. Grocery store owners were very keen to support the initiative and form a key part of the scheme, Srinivasan said.

“It was quite a common sight to see young mothers and infants receive free milk from milch cattle owners. In finding a way to tackle urban malnutrition we only needed to see what our father and grandparents did in their days in the villages around Coimbatore.” she said.