Chhattisgarh Government’s Women and Child Development Department, in association with UNICEF, is conducting leadership programmes on experimental basis under Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) in five districts of State namely Durg, Dhamtari, Mungeli, Surajpur and Bastar.
Women and Child Development Minister Ramsheela Sahu on Wednesday inaugurated the programme in a workshop on ‘ICDS leadership’ organised at conference hall of a private hotel.
This pilot project has been initiated in five districts of the State with an aim to create awareness among parents, family and community regarding all-round development of children and to inculcate better parenting skills in people so as to ensure proper upbringing of children.
In his address to the workshop, Sahu said that children have impressionable minds. Whatever they learn and observe in this tender age becomes the base of their future. Mother’s love and care are the powerful tools that may shape a child’s future.
Women and Child Development Department has a team of mothers posted as Aanganbadi workers, surveyors, project officers, district programme officers and women and child development officers. Hence, the department empowered with dedication and sincerity of mothers is expected to raise a generation of responsible citizens.
Sahu said that all-round development is the top-priority of State government. She thanked Chief Minister Raman Singh for formulating various schemes for women empowerment, child and youth welfare.
She said that the training provided in this workshop should be implemented at field-level to the fullest and children should be benefitted from the same.
Women and Child Development Department Secretary Dinesh Shrivastava said that what a child learns between three to six years of age becomes the basis of his/her life. Aanganbadi centres can play an important role in laying strong foundation of children’s lives.
Once parents and guardians are made aware of the beneficial impacts, they will agree to send their children to aanganbadi centres. Director Women and Child Development Dilip Vasnikar, UNICEF State Head Prashant Das and ClR (Centre for learning Resources Pune) Director Chitranjan Kaul also addressed the workshop.
Under this programme, training for three kinds of leadership skills will be provided- disciplinary science education leadership, institutional leadership and community leadership.
In the workshop, concerned District Programme Officers, District women and Child Development Officers, Project Officers and Supervisors of the department, along with the Officials of State Educational and Training Institute, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Health Department and social welfare organization- ‘Care’ were also present.