The Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat has called for involvement of women self-help groups in distribution of the ‘Take home ration scheme’ and special food supplement ‘URJA’ for the malnourished children in 20,066 Anganwadi centres spread across the state. The food supplement 'URJA' is prepared from local ingredients like Mandua, Bhatt, Ghee, Chaulai and jaggery. The CM reviewed the progress of these schemes being implemented through the Anganawadi centres under the Integrated Child Development Service (ICDS) programme on Saturday. He opined that involvement of women self- help groups would serve the twin purposes of providing nutritional food to the children as well as creating employment opportunities for women. Rawat directed the officials to ensure that there is a regular monitoring of malnutrition found among the pregnant women and the children at the Aanganbari centres of the State. He also stressed on effective monitoring of the funds spent on the schemes. A sum of Rs 214 Crore is annually spent on ICDS schemes on preventing malnutrition, he added.
In the meeting, the CM directed the officers to draft a plan for providing employment to the family members of 20,000 malnourished children in the State. He suggested that these families should be linked with 12000 self-help groups already working in the state. The state government has set up a target to constitute additional 8000 self-help groups. He further said that these self- help groups should be provided with training in modern production technology and packaging. CM said that malnourished children from the poor families living in the slums should be identified and special focus should be trained on improving their health through providing nutritious food.
Heaping praise on the quality of the food supplement “URJA”, he said that soon a decision to supply it to the nearby states would be taken.
Rawat directed the officers to firm up a plan so that works like stitching uniforms of the school children, police, home guards, hospital staff and forest department employees can be done at the Nyaya Panchayat level. The locals and women help- help groups should be trained in stitching uniforms through skill development training, he added.
The meeting was attended among others by the principal secretaries- Radha Raturi and Manisha Panwar, secretary Pankaj Kumar Pandey and the senior officers of Women and Child Development Department.