Following recommendations of the Prime Minister’s National Council on India’s nutrition challenges, the women and child development (WCD) ministry has proposed a multi-sectoral nutrition programme to be implemented as a special intervention in 200 high burden districts across the country with an aim to reduce child under nutrition and reduction in levels of anaemia among young children, adolescent girls and women.
The new scheme with an estimated cost of `1,161 crore is seeking Expenditure Finance Committee clearance.
The programme proposes to address maternal and child malnutrition in 200 high burden districts by bringing together various national programmes through strong institutional and programmatic convergence at the state, district, block and village levels.
While the first phase will begin during the year 2013-2014, the second phase will be scaled up to cover 200 districts. The scheme will be started in states/UTs like Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Daman and Diu, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharshtra, Nagaland, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal.
According to top sources in the women and child development ministry, taking into consideration the resource constraints and also the need for more updated nutrition outcome data by end 2013, it was decided in consultation with the Planning Commission to roll out the scheme in 2013. “The 12th Plan targets to reduce under nutrition amongst children 0-3 years by half as per the National Family Health Survey levels and reduce anaemia in women and children and girls by half. The multi-sectoral programme targets to contribute to the prevention and reduction in child under nutrition,” women and child development minister Krishna Tirath told this newspaper.