Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacted with the grass-roots level workers through video conferencing on Tuesday to know about the steps being adopted by them to root out ‘malnutrition’ in the tribal State.
Notably, in the first of its kind attempt, the live telecast of the Prime Minister programme was broadcast at 100 Anganwadi Centers across the country. Over 10,000 Sahiyas got the opportunity to establish direct communication with PM Modi, where he not just motivated the workers but suggested measures to root out ‘malnutrition’ from their respective regions.
The PM through video-conferencing especially mentioned about the work undertaken by the Sahiyas and ANM workers at Seraikela district. Overwhelmed with the response of the PM, a Sahiya, Manita Devi of Seraikela district said, “For the first time, we got the opportunity to interact with the PM. He not just motivated us to continue with the hard work but also encouraged us to adopt other innovative steps to reach out to the people residing in interior villages especially using different measures of Information Education Communication (IEC) techniques.”
Similarly, another Sahiya from Ranchi extended her gratitude towards the PM. “We spend our lives in serving the people and for community development as a whole. After the launch of several schemes, ranging from immunization programmes to organizing awareness drives for the community people, our role has been expanded yet nobody had earlier ever given us so much importance. We are overwhelmed with the response of the PM who took some valuable time out of his busy schedule,” said Reeta Purthy who is associated with an Anganwadi Centre, Namkom.
An array of events is being organised to mark ‘Poshan Mah’ (Nutrition Month) across the country. Government of India (GoI) in association with the State government has planned a series of events to weed out acute malnutrition from Jharkhand.
The whole September month is being observed as ‘Poshan Mah’ encompassing several events ranging from organizing fairs to targeting pregnant women to distributing folic tablets among the beneficiaries.
In addition, during the live interaction with the Sahiyas covering the entire country, the PM announced a hike in their monthly honorarium from October 2018. Sahiyas will be covered under different social security schemes and get insurance coverage of up to Rs. 4 Lakh.