The Chhattisgarh government allocated around 73,058 quintals of wheat for ensuring nutritious diet for children, pregnant women and lactating mothers in the Anganwadis in the entire State for the current month, officials stated. The Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection Department officials said that wheat had been allocated to all the 27 districts for the fair price ration shops.
The allotment order says for Rajnandgaon district 8248 quintal, Surguja district 8001 quintal, Janjgir-Champa district 4110 quintal, Raipur district 4144 quintal, Bilaspur district 4090 quintal, Balodabazaar-Bhatapara district 4085 quintal, Raigarh district 3999 quintal, Jashpur district 3865 quintal, Balod district 3830 quintal, Korba district 3125 quintal,, Surajpur district district 3013 quintal wheat had been allocated, Bastar district 2698 quintals, Balrampur-Ramanujganj district 2562 quintal, North Bastar (Kanker) district 1880 quintal, Kabirdham district 1854 quintal, Gariaband district 1869 quintal, Mahasamund district 1810 quintal, Durg district 1478 quintal, Dhamtari district 1455 quintal, Mungeli district 1471 quintal, Kondagaon district 1265 quintal, Bemetara district 1025 quintal, Koriya district 984 quintal, South Bastar (Dantewada) district 715 quintal,Bijapur district 620 quintal, Sukma district 507 quintal and Narayanpur district 355 quintal wheat had been allotted for the month of February.
Notably, Chhattisgarh Government has also entrusted women self-help groups (SHGs) of the State with the 100 per cent responsibility of preparing and distributing ready-to-eat food, hot-cooked meal and breakfast to Anganwadi centres, officials stated. Nearly 1,568 women self-help groups are conducting the work of ready-to-eat food preparation and distribution.
likewise, distribution of snacks and hot-cooked meal is looked after by 22,226 women SHGs of the State. In Anganbadi centres, children of age-group 6 months to three years as well as pregnant and lactating mothers are provided ready-to-eat food, murra laddoos and double fortified salt through take-home-ration system.
Moreover, the children of age group 3-6 years are provided breakfast and hot-cooked meal as per the decided menu. The amount for medicine kit distributed at Anganwadi centre has also been increased from Rs 600 to Rs 1000. For all round development of teenage girls, Sabla Yojana is conducted in 10 districts of state while in other districts, Kishori Shakti Yojana is operated. ‘The Chhattisgarh Mahila Kosh’ is operated in State to provide financial aid to women for self-employment activities. Under the scheme, women self-help groups are at first provided loan of upto Rs 50,000 at nominal annual interest of 3 per cent, and then loan of upto Rs 2 lakh is provided to them.
Till date, more than 25,000 women SHGs have taken loans worth Rs 41.60 crore for business activities. likewise, with the help of saksham yojana, more than 800 women have become financially self-dependent. Moreover, schemes like Swavlamban Yojana, Skill Improvement Training Scheme and Entreprenuer Awareness Programme are also operated to provide financial aid and skill improvement assistance to women.
Moreover, School Education Department is operating schemes like free bicycle distribution scheme, free textbook distribution scheme, labour Department is operating free bicycle and sewing machine distribution scheme for female labourers and Higher Education Department’s decision to provide dew higher education to girl students are proving beneficial in all-round development of girls of women in the State.
The State Government has lived up to its commitment towards security, protection and development of women and children by effectively implementing various schemes, programmes and laws. It is the result of State government’s consistent efforts that level of malnutrition in children has declined, number of girls students in schools have increased significantly and socio-economic development of women has paced up, officials stated.
The initiative taken by the Chhattisgarh government to empower women by organizing them in Self Help Groups (SHGs) has proved a success, officials claimed. As many as 23,794 SHGs are successfully accomplishing the work of providing ‘Ready-to-Eat’ food, fresh food and breakfast to more than 49,000 Anganwadi and Mini Anganwadi centers run by the Women and Child Development (WCD) Department.
Among these SHGs, as many as 1568 are engaged in preparation and distribution of Ready-to-Eat meals (nutrition dietary supplements) while 22,226 SHGs are engaged in providing breakfast and fresh food. The Anganwadi and Mini Anganwadi centers are providing nutrition dietary supplement to more than 2,54,9000 children, pregnant and lactating women.
All these activities at one hand are helping the women in becoming organized and independent and on the other hand State is benefiting from the commitment shown by the women towards work and honesty of these women. Showing full faith in women, the State government has handed over the complete work of preparation and distribution of mid-day meal in school to the SHGs.
Besides this the SHGs are also engaged in preparation of school uniform, mushroom production, production of papad, badi, murabba, daliya, silk production, lac farming, bamboo craft, woodcraft, animal husbandry etc. income generating works. The women SHGs also play an important role in the campaign against malnutrition. Apart from becoming independent and organized, the women of the State are gradually raising voice against social evils. It was due to initiative taken by women, hundreds of liquor shops have been closed by the government.
Union Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi in November last year had assured that as many as 1600 Anganwadi centers without buildings would have their own buildings in Chhattisgarh. The assurance was provided by Union Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi to Chhattisgarh Women and Child Development Minister Ramsheela Sahu said in New Delhi.
Moreover, it order to improve the nutritional status of mothers and children, a ‘Suposhan Chaupal’ will be organised at the Anganwadi centers of 17 ‘high burden districts’ (with maximum malnourished children) of the State on every third Thursday of the month, the State government announced last month. A circular was issued by the Women and Child Development department in this regard to the Collectors and District Programme Officers of the concerned districts.
Officials said that activities like ‘Godbharai’, ‘Annaprashan’, ‘Balbhoj’, etc would be undertaken in the ‘Suposhan Chaupal’. The high burden districts identified by the Department include Balod, Bemetara, Baloda-Bazar, Bastar, Gariaband, Durg, Kabirdham, Mahasamund, Korba, Jashpur, Narayanpur, Dantewada, Bijapur, Sukma, Kanker and Raipur.
According to the circular, the Central government has directed to organise community based activities in Anganwadi centers to improve the nutrition of mothers and children under the ICDS Systems Strengthening and Nutrition Improvement Project (ISSNIP) started by the Central government with help of World Bank.
By organising such programmes, the participation of community will increase under the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) and help in achieving the millennium development goal. The official said that for Godbharai programme at Anganwadi Centre, the registered pregnant women, pregnant women with seven months pregnancy and one or two members of their family will be invited.
Similarly for Annaprashan, the children completing six months of age, children up to age of nine months registered with the Anganwadi centre, their parents and family members will be invited for participation in the programme. Besides this, the moderate and severely malnourished children, their parents, children targeted in ‘Sneh Shivir’ and ‘Nava Jatan’ scheme and medical officers will participate in the Suposhan Chaupal.
The participants will be welcomed and motivational song will be sung by the local heroes. The experiences mother in-law, ideal mothers, parents who have successfully cared their children from malnourished to nourished status etc would be made the chief guest of the programme, the officials said. The gathering will be made aware of the importance of nutrition through these activities and discussions will also be held on the issues like care during pregnancy, nutritious food, malnutrition management quiz, etc.
Information related to services and facilities provided under different government schemes like Sneh Shivir, Nava Jatan, Chief Minister Bal Sandarbh Yojna, Nutrition Rehabilitation Center etc will also be given to the participants during the Chaupal. It may be recalled that about 38 per cent of the 60,000 malnourished children targetted during the first and second phase of State government’s ‘Nav Jatan Yojana’ during 2012-14 have been cured within an action plan period of barely six months, officials informed.
Moreover, since year 2009, malnutrition eradication programme is also underway in the State, under which ‘Mukhyamantri Bal Sandarbh Yojana’ is being implemented in the State to provide healthcare through home-based management and additional health services to children with critical malnutrition condition, they stated.