“The other positive development in the state has been the growth of Self Help Groups. There are several lakh groups in the state,” said Jay Panda, BJD MP from the state and an active member of the Alliance. These groups have taken over the charge of cooking mid-day meals and supplementing food for the nutrition programmes run by Anganwadis.

The previous stop was Maharashtra where they learnt about fortification. The next stop is Bihar and West Bengal and would be organised by Shahnawaz Husain, who is also part of this Alliance.

“Most of this is about alleviating hunger. We should not cloak it in other words that does not show the magnitude of the problem,” said Shyam Benegal, filmmaker and now a MP, on his first visit with the group.