National Nutrition Month Campaign Foundation For Healthy, Capable India: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday (September 19) termed the National Nutrition Month campaign as the foundation for a healthy and capable India. “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,” he was quoted as saying in an official statement. The chief minister highlighted that the state government has created a new mechanism through which women self-help groups are delivering nutritious food to Anganwadi Centres.

Speaking at a programme of the national campaign, CM Yogi said,

The nutrition campaign is the foundation for a healthy and capable India.

On decrease in maternal and child mortality rates in Uttar Pradesh, he said that this became possible because mothers and children started receiving nutritious food, according to the statement.

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Emphasising the significant improvements in the National Family Health Survey, the Chief Minister said that there has been a 5.1 per cent improvement in anaemia, a 6.6 per cent improvement in dwarfism, a 7.4 per cent improvement in underweight, and a 0.6 per cent improvement in dryness between 2015-2016 and 2019-2020.

The chief minister also said that there was a time when the state used to witness around 1,200-1,500 deaths annually due to encephalitis. Eastern Uttar Pradesh was particularly affected by this disease, he said.

In 30 years, from 1977 to 2017, approximately 50,000 children in the state fell prey to this disease, he said, according to the statement. He said,

After our government came to power, we made 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.

During the programme, Chief Minister inaugurated or laid the foundation stones of 1,359 Anganwadi Centres. The foundation stones of 171 child development project offices were also laid. He also transferred an amount of Rs 29 crore through DBT for uniforms (sarees) to 2.90 lakh Anganwadi workers and helpers.

Also Read: Public Health Top Priority Of Uttar Pradesh Government: CM Yogi Adityanath

During the baby shower ceremony, the Chief Minister gifted medicines and nutritious food items to some pregnant women. He also performed Annaprashan Sanskar on infants by feeding pudding to them.

Additionally, the Chief Minister honoured the parents of three children who came from malnourished to well-nourished categories of families, under the ‘Sambhav’ campaign. He further gifted two sarees each as uniform to four Anganwadi workers as a token of appreciation.

In the program, Minister of Women’s Welfare, Child Development, and Nutrition Baby Rani Maurya, State Minister of Child Development and Nutrition Department Pratibha Shukla, Chief Secretary Durga Shankar Mishra, Agriculture Production Commissioner Manoj Kumar Singh, and Principal Secretary of the Women and Child Development Department Veena Kumari, were present among other dignitaries.

Also Read: Blog: Nutrition, The Key To A Healthier You

NDTV – Dettol have been working towards a clean and healthy India since 2014 via the Banega Swachh India initiative, which is helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan. The campaign aims to highlight the inter-dependency of humans and the environment, and of humans on one another with the focus on One Health, One Planet, One Future – Leaving No One Behind. It stresses on the need to take care of, and consider, everyone’s health in India – especially vulnerable communities – theLGBTQ population,indigenous people, India’s different tribes, ethnic and linguistic minorities, people with disabilities, migrants, geographically remote populations, gender and sexual minorities. In wake of the currentCOVID-19 pandemic, the need for WASH (Water,SanitationandHygiene) is reaffirmed as handwashing is one of the ways to prevent Coronavirus infection and other diseases. The campaign will continue to raise awareness on the same along with focussing on the importance of nutrition and healthcare for women and children, fightmalnutrition, mental wellbeing, self care, science and health,adolescent health & gender awareness. Along with the health of people, the campaign has realised the need to also take care of the health of the eco-system. Our environment is fragile due to human activity, which is not only over-exploiting available resources, but also generating immense pollution as a result of using and extracting those resources. The imbalance has also led to immense biodiversity loss that has caused one of the biggest threats to human survival – climate change. It has now been described as a “code red for humanity.” The campaign will continue to cover issues likeair pollution,waste management,plastic ban,manual scavengingand sanitation workers andmenstrual hygiene. Banega Swasth India will also be taking forward the dream of Swasth Bharat, the campaign feels that only a Swachh or clean India wheretoiletsare used andopen defecation free (ODF)status achieved as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched byPrime Minister Narendra Modiin 2014, can eradicate diseases like diahorrea and the country can become a Swasth or healthy India.