New mechanism in place for nutritious food to Anganwadi centres: U.P. CM
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday said Uttar Pradesh has worked out a mechanism for the distribution of nutritious food to Anganwadi centres across the state.
“There was a time when the liquor mafia used to supply ‘nutritious food’ in Uttar Pradesh. Our government has created a new mechanism through which women self-help groups are now delivering nutritious food to Anganwadi centres,” said Yogi while addressing the National Nutrition Month programme at Lok Bhavan here, according to a press release.
He inaugurated/laid the foundation stones of 1,359 Anganwadi centres at a cost of ₹155 crore. The foundation stone of 171 child development project offices to come up at a cost of ₹50 crore was also laid. The CM transferred an amount of ₹29 crore through DBT for uniforms (sarees) to 2.90 lakh Anganwadi workers and helpers for uniform.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi has inspired the entire country to fight malnutrition by initiating a widespread campaign. In this direction, a lot of work has been done in Uttar Pradesh over the past six years,” the CM said.
Yogi said there was a time when the state used to witness around 1,200-1,500 deaths annually due to encephalitis. He further said eastern Uttar Pradesh was particularly affected by this disease and from 1977 to 2017, approximately 50,000 children in the state fell prey to it.
The CM said there has been 5.1 percent improvement in anaemia, 6.6 percent improvement in dwarfism, 7.4 percent improvement in underweight, and 0.6 percent improvement in dryness between 2015-2016 and 2019-2020.
“After our government came to power, we started our efforts to eradicate encephalitis from the state through inter-departmental coordination with the central government in 2018 and today we have been largely successful in our attempt,” the CM said.
He also said this had been possible because mothers and children started receiving nutritious food. “Our government will organise competitions for healthy boys and girls at the Anganwadi centres, nyay panchayat and block level”, he said.
Yogi said, “This is the first year of the “Azaadi ka Amrit Kal” and the state government aims at establishing India as the world’s third-largest economy by 2027.”
He said Prime Minister Modi has set a goal for 2047, the centenary year of India’s independence, to make the country developed. “For this, we need to make our country healthy, educated, and capable”, the CM said. He gifted medicines and nutritious food items to some pregnant women during their baby shower ceremony.
Yogi also performed ‘Annaprashan Sanskar’ of infants by feeding pudding to them. He honoured the parents of three children who came from malnourished to well-nourished categories of families under the ‘Sambhav’ campaign. Yogi further gifted two sarees each as uniform to four Anganwadi workers as a token of appreciation.
