Despite promise of the Government early this year for commissioning a State Nutrition Mission in the lines of Central Government, the mission is yet to take shape. However, NGOs, in convergence with Government departments, have decided to discuss on the formation of the mission in a workshop on Tuesday. “Jharkhand ranks the second State after Madhya Pradesh in malnutrition. Following the directions of Health Ministry, every State in the country should have its Nutrition Mission Committee. Merely three States-Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat have implemented it,” Mahadev Hansda, State Programme Manager of Save the Children told the media persons on Monday.
likewise, Jharkhand State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (JSCPCR) Member cum Vikas Bharti Bishunpur Consultant Ranjana Choudhary said, “In the last Budget session, CM declared to set the Nutrition Mission. Once it is established, it will certainly help in eradicating malnutrition from the State through multi-sectoral role and strategic practices.”
The State Nutrition Mission would further be divided to district and block levels after being made at the State level. “DC will head the District Nutrition Mission while BDO will be responsible for Block Nutrition Mission,” said Hansda. As for the Jharkhand’s Nutrition Mission, representatives from various Self Help Groups, Secretaries of Government Departments, NGO members are expected to come out with a strategy of replicating the Nutrition Mission model existing in the three states during the workshop.
Hansda said people who have actively participated in setting the Maharashtra State Nutrition Mission will also be present here. Meanwhile, 108 villages of Jharkhand’s Gumla Sadar Block and 190 villages of Varanasi’s Pindra Block are the only regions where schemes of ‘Coalition for Sustainable Nutrition Security in India’ framed under eminent Green Revolution Scientist MS Swaminathan had been carried out in the last three years on pilot project basis.
At the Gumla block, the project’s Block Operational Plan was initiated by Save the Children, Vikas Bharti in collaboration with Human Resource Development, Social Welfare, Drinking Water and Sanitation, Panchayati Raj, Rural Development, Health and Agriculture departments.