The Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi has requested that the Uttarakhand Government should distribute Ready to Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) packets in the Anganwadi centres for children less than three years of age on an experimental basis.
The intake of RUTF helps in reducing malnutrition and anaemia. She made this request to Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat when he met her at New Delhi based Uttarakhand Bhawan on Friday. Gandhi said that the RUTF packets should be provided to children for three months. Regular intake for three months would make a malnourished child completely healthy, she said.
She said that RUTF is made from local food grains like Ragi, pearl millet and soya bean and it is very rich in calcium, protein and Iron. She said that the rural economy of the predominately mountainous State would have a positive impact by increase in demand of these food grains. Gandhi advocated that the RUTF should be implemented as a special mission to remove malnutrition in Uttarakhand.
She also pointed out that some important provisions have remained left out from the Uttarakhand Cow and its progeny protection act 2007 and suggested that necessary amendments should be made into it to make more effective. The CM assured that necessary action on act would be taken after taking view of legal experts. The union minister also informed that special flower pots are being made from the cow dung. She suggested that these pots should replace the black plastic pouches which the forest department uses in its nurseries.