Poultry India, an advisory body with a primary mandate to spearhead the ‘Eat Right, Eat Healthy’ educational drive, through its all-India Protein Awareness Campaign, has picked up substantial momentum following its launch in Pune last month. Now the campaign reaches Telangana state, one of the highest poultry producers in the country, to highlight the protein deficiency in the country.
The advisory body has also circulated printed material to retail outlets highlighting the importance of protein and consequences for the lack of its intake.
Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has recognised poultry as a key sector and has extended help to its farmers through subsidies and increased facilities. India is the third-largest egg producer in the world after China and USA and employs over 25 million people. It contributes Rs 95,000 crore to the economy each year with Telangana contributing substantially to that figure.
One out of every five eggs produced in India is from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. The Union government has now closely worked with Poultry India and its associates to propagate World Egg Day on October 9, 2015, through several events including essay writing and egg recipe/ cooking competitions for students, women, and teachers.
Commenting on the launch, Harish Garware, executive committee member, Poultry India, said, “Despite improvement in education levels and poverty alleviation, India unfortunately is still a malnourished, protein-deficient nation and world capital of TB, diabetes and obesity. This is only because our food culture has not yet evolved with times. We do not dispute the importance of protein but none of us are aware how much we need daily and how to fulfil it.”
He added, “We need one gram of protein for every kilogram of our body weight everyday because our body cannot store protein.”
O P Singh, Core Committee member, Poultry India, pointed out, “Protein-Energy Malnutrition (PEM) in young children is currently the most important nutritional problem that has reached near epidemic status. This often results from consuming food that is low in protein. Through our efforts we are aiming to significantly reduce our nation’s malnutrition and protein deficiency quotient with cost-effective and economical source of proteins which, most importantly, is easily available anywhere in any street corner outlet.”
Ranjith Reddy, MD, SR Hatcheries, and head, Poultry Breeders Association of Telangana, observed, “The Protein Awareness Campaign is giving us confidence that the Telangana government is backing us.”
