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For UNICEF
India, student Tomohiro Hamakawa conducted research on nutrition, immunization, and
caste-based discrimination in Jharkhand, India.
His team completed fieldwork in a rural village where a group of tribal people are
considered "untouchables" and suffer greatly in every aspect of life. His team not
only wrote a case study that analyzes the issues of nutrition and immunization through the lens
of discrimination, but also produced a documentary film that captures the inequality and bias
deeply rooted in the village. Both the case study and film will be published by UNICEF India.
Tomo's report shares the field research he and his team conducted to investigate the
immunization and child nutrition status of the tribal groups. The team found that immunization
coverage in the main Ghutia village, and the hamlet where they spent their time, was
comprehensive, and awareness of its importance widespread. They found, however, that child
nutrition was exceedingly poor and examined the reasons why government services to improve
immunization and nutrition, both housed under the same government scheme, the Integrated
Child Development Services (ICDS), achieved such starkly different results.
Read Tomo's paper here.
Another student, Katherine Randall, also worked with UNICEF Indiawith
their KCCI internship case studies program. This UNICEF India
initiative is under the umbrella of the Knowledge Community on Children in India
(KCCI). KCCI aims to fill knowledge gaps and promote information sharing on policies
and programs related to children in India.
Specifically, Katherine worked with several other interns to evaluate the Village
Planning (VP) Intervention, a Government of Uttar Pradesh and UNICEF initiative. VP
Intervention is a five-day participatory exercise which aims to empower the community
with the skills to identify problems it faces and to build bridges to service providers
in order to solve those problems. While, as Katherine puts it, the VP Intervention is
widely seen as a success, Katherine’s team addressed several weaknesses of the program
and provided suggestions for improvement in their report.
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