Living in the narrow bylanes of Dharavi, 18-month-old Needa Shaikh has seen her four-year-old cousin Samira eat wafers and fried pop rings every day. Looking at her own cousins and other kids in the neighbourhood, it wasn’t too long before Needa too started demanding the same. Her mother Praveen Nadim Shaikh says, "Earlier we used to buy Rs 5 wafers and pop rings rather than see her cry for them. I never realised that it could be harmful to her. I was not aware of the right diet and the best kinds of food required for her good health.”

In November last year, a community organiser from a local NGO informed Praveen that her daughter was suffering from Moderate Acute Malnutrition (MAM) as she weighed 6.5 kg. Like Needa, many other young children in Mumbai’s slum areas of Dharavi, Wadala and Mankhurd are reportedly underweight and malnourished as they consume unhealthy, low-cost foods due to a lack of awareness among parents.