It was in the early 1970s that Dr Samir Chaudhuri, then a young pediatrician, chose to work in the villages and slums of West Bengal. He soon found that he needed to go much beyond the confines of his specialisation to improve the health of the pregnant mothers and children who came to him as patients. Medical attention in itself was not the only answer. Malnutrition was the real problem. The first step, he realised, lay in awareness and a balanced diet.
In 1974 Dr Chaudhuri set up the Child In Need Institute (CINI) in Joka on the outskirts of Kolkata to train health workers and reach out to poor families. They needed to be told the importance of eating nutritious meals. It was sound advice but families eking out an existence in slums could hardly afford such meals.