nChief Minister Bhupesh Baghel on Saturday said his government was committed towards breaking the vicious cycle of malnutrition and transforming Chhattisgarh into a well-developed, well-nourished and healthy state.
While delivering the inaugural address at the ‘Outlook Poshan’ conference at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi, the chief minister said that gender inequality was the “greatest hindrance” in fight against malnutrition, according to a government communiqué received here.
Male-female disparity was the main roadblock towards achieving nutrition targets and the issue needed to be addressed when it came to nutritious food, the CM opined.
Member of Parliament from Bastar Deepak Baij and Rajya Sabha MP Chhaya Verma were present at the gathering.
Baghel expressed his happiness towards the forum for taking up real issues such as malnutrition. “I am happy that instead of discussing topics related to caste and religion, we are here to discuss some real issues like malnutrition. Today, it is important that we ensure good life on earth rather than tracing life on moon,” he said.
The Chief Minister said that statistics of malnutrition in India and Chhattisgarh were in alarming situation and the state government had taken many steps in the last six months to bridge the nutrition gap. He said that the emphasis on ‘baadi’ which means kitchen garden in the flagship scheme of Chhattisgarh “Narwa, Garwa, Ghurwa, Baadi” was to address malnutrition. Kitchen garden in every household would ensure that family members had access to nutritious food, he added.
Referring to some of the steps taken by his government, he said that the state government had been planning to set up food processing units in each block with an aim to helping farmers in selling their products in market. The Chief Minister said that his government had been working towards implementation of universal health scheme in Chhattisgarh. He added that the government had waived off loans of farmers in the state and purchased their products on higher MSP to improve economic condition of the farmers. The chief minister said that the government had linked DMF to education and good nourishment.
Speaking on the issue of egg in mid day meal, he said, “nutritional value of egg does not require any debate. We have included egg in mid day meal and the people of Chhattisgarh are supporting us. We also have an alternative meal for those children who don’t eat egg.”
The Chief Minister said that “gender disparity, poverty, lack of knowledge about nutrition and political will” were some of the roadblocks in the fight against malnutrition.