Click & Check: AI Machine Introduced In Maharashtra Tribal School To Ensure Safe, Nutritious Meals - Watch

New Delhi: An Artificial-Intelligence based machine has been installed at Todsa Ashram School of Etapalli, Maharashtra by the authorities in order to improve the nutrition level of tribal children of Gadchiroli. The machine takes a photo of the student with her/his plate of food and within a few seconds, without any human intervention, identifies whether the quality of the food is good.

The initiative was taken by the administration under project Bhamragad and there are eight government schools part of it. According to the UNICEF India report, About 40 per cent of under five tribal children in India are stunted, and 16 per cent of them are severely stunted. Tribal children have higher levels of undernutrition compared to children of socially economically advanced sections.

“Under project Bhamragad, there are eight govt schools. When I used to come to this all-girls' Ashram School, I used to feel that they lack nutrition. When we had a preliminary BMI analysis, we found that 61 girls out of the 222 were malnourished. Meals are provided here thrice a day - breakfast, lunch and dinner. Quantity of the food is up to the mark, and we also follow the menu. So, we wanted to ascertain the cause,” Shubham Gupta, Assistant Collector of Etapalli and Project Director of Integrated Tribal Development Project said.

#WATCH | Maharashtra: In a bid to improve the nutrition level of tribal children of Gadchiroli, a unique Artificial Intelligence-based machine has been installed at Todsa Ashram School of Etapalli. The machine takes a photo of the student with her/his plate of food and within a… pic.twitter.com/b8zgytArBp — ANI (@ANI) April 23, 2023

Shubham Gupta, assistant collector, got touched with an NGO which further connected him to a startup. Finally, they deployed the machine designed by that startup.

“Through this machine, we have tried to implement improvement in not only the quantity but also the quality of food. Data collected here can be accessed by Headmaster and me. We have installed it in one of the 8 Ashram Schools so far. The results are very positive. We installed it in September 2022. The quality of food has improved since then and children's BMI has also improved,” Shubham Gupta added.

AI & Personalised Nutrition

AI can be used to analyze an individual's genetic makeup, lifestyle factors, and health data to provide personalized nutrition recommendations. This can help individuals make informed decisions about what to eat and how to live a healthier lifestyle.