Union minister for Women and Child Development, Smriti Zubin Irani along with chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat held a meeting with officials concerned regarding women empowerment, child development and the national nutrition mission here on Tuesday.

Speaking at the meeting the Union minister stressed on the need for paying special attention to the national nutrition mission, drinking water and toilets in Anganwadi centres. Severely malnourished and malnourished children should be provided with adequate nutritious food so that their condition can improve and be in the normal category. A calendar should be prepared for nutritious food and this calendar should also be shared with the public representatives, she said. Irani also stressed on the need for focusing on the T-3 plan for mitigating anaemia. It is also important to carry out a public awareness campaign regarding adequate time gap between the birth of two children so as to ensure their proper mental and physical development, said the Union minister.

Speaking in the meeting, the chief minister said that officials concerned should tour the districts where the child sex ratio is poor. They should then also deliberate on the findings to ascertain the cause for the poor child sex ratio. Under the Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao campaign, the state and district level committees should hold meetings from time to time, said the chief minister.

Officials informed in the meeting that four on-stop centres have been established in the state while remaining nine such centres will also be started before August 15. They also requested that the annual income limit be raised in rural and urban areas in order to ensure maximum benefit to the beneficiaries under the sponsor scheme. They also requested that mentally challenged women also be brought under the purview of the Swadhar Greh scheme.

The additional secretary, Government of India, SK Singh, State’s women empowerment and child development secretary Sowjanya, director Jharna Kamthan and other officials concerned were also present in the meeting.