Chief Minister Raman Singh will launch the fourth phase of ‘Nava Jatan Yojana’ to ensure nutritious diet for children on February 10 this year. The prime objective of the scheme is to bring the level of nutrition to minimum base-level and attain the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations. About 3.50 lakh children will be identified in the process, officials stated.
The State Women and Child Development Department at the Mantralaya in a circular on December 23 last year has ordered the District Collectors and Department’s District Programme officers and District Women and Child Development officers to see that the programme is implemented religiously. Singh has ordered the concerned officers to see the nutritious diet programme is implemented effectively to attain the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations .
The fourth and fifth phases of the Nava Jatan Yojana should be implemented in a time-bound manner. The malnutrition level should be brought down to 25 per cent by the end of December 2015, he said. The target of bringing 7 lakh children to the minimum base-level should be attained during the Nava Jatan Yojana, Singh said.
He stressed on the need to go all out to attack the malnutrition of children. Baseline and Headline surveys will be done for identifying the severely malnourished children in the entire State. The weight of the affected children will be taken at the Anganwadis in the presence of Child Development Programme officers, Mitanins, Anganwadi workers and Chief Ministers’ Nutrition Ambassadors.
The severely malnourished children’s list will be updated in Nava Jatan Yojana software and admitted to the anganwadi centres. The monitoring will be done at the State-level. Singh asked officials to maintain the sanctity of the programme. The co-operation of UNICEF, CARE and other reputed organisations will be taken for Baseline and Headline data.
The malnutrition of children has been reduced spectacularly with the close co-ordination of various State Government department and other agencies. Notably, 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.
Moreover, the third phase of Nav Jatan Yojana has already started in the State from September 1, 2014. To achieve Millennium Development Goal of malnutrition eradication and to prevent this condition in children, the State Government has targetted 66,000 children under the third phase of Nava Jatan Yojana and has set the goal of curing malnutrition in 27,000 children in this phase. In the same sequence, this training programme was organised.
The Data collected during Vazan Tyohar ( Weighing Festival) in June 2014 shows that the level of malnutrition in the State has declined to nearly 33 per cent. As per the National Family Health Survey, the malnutrition level in the State in year 2005-06 was 52 per cent. It may be recalled that on August 25 this year, the Chhattisgarh Government had announced that it has taken upon itself the challenging task of eradicating malnutrition among children below 3 years of age across the State.
The Government has taken it as a challenge, and has chalked out an elaborate plan to eradicate malnutrition with the help of anganwadi as well Phulwari centres, officials informed. Officials informed that it is the first scheme of its kind in the nation that Phulwari centres have been opened with the help of Gram Panchayats and Mitanins of Health Department in Chhattisgarh. In these centres, children are served nutritious meals three times a day. No Government employee or worker has been appointed in these centres.
Instead, mothers of the children enrolled in Phulwari themselves attend the children and serve meal to them turn by turn. Provision has been made to enroll minimum 5 children and maximum 20 children in every Phulwari Centre. As per the announcement of the Chief Minister, ‘Phulwari Centres’ have already been started in 85 tribal populated development blocks of Chhattisgarh.
The scheme has been formulated particularly to save children below 3 years of age from malnutrition and to improve their health. Panchayat and Rural Development Department officials had informed that the most important feature of this scheme is public participation, especially participation of mothers of such children. Singh had announced the scheme of opening Pulwari centres in 85 tribal populated blocks of the State, on the occasion of Republic Day last year.
Within one-and-a-half years of his announcement, Panchayat and Rural Development Department has started opening Phulwari Centres in the development blocks concerned in a schematic manner. This scheme of the State Government is being recognised at a national level. The Central Government’s Centre for Innovation in Public Systems in Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh) presented this scheme as the Best Innovative Activity in India, at its Foundation Day Function organised on May 14, 2014.
In this function, Chhattisgarh Government’s Panchayat Department was also invited. According to the officials, this scheme was started in Surguja district two years back in August, 2012 on an experimental basis. On the initiative of District Panchayat, 300 Phulwari centres were started. Considering the success of this experiment, the Chief Minister announced implementation of this scheme in all 85 tribal populated development block of the State.
After the commencement of the scheme, experts from Pandit Jawahar lal Nehru Allopathic Medical College conducted a study in association with UNICEF, and findings of this study have shown commendable success of this scheme. Within one year of enrolling at Phulwari Centres, the children underwent a decline in their malnutrition level from 45 per cent to 30 per cent and their health conditions have also improved.
Moreover, since 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.