Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday (January 16) stressed the importance of ensuring nutritious food to everyone, especially children, saying that was the only way to achieve food security. Vijayan, after inaugurating the National Seminar on Child Nutrition here, said increasing the people’s share of food items does not lead to food security. He also said providing nutritious food also ensures that children are healthy and do not suffer from ailments like anaemia.
Also Watch: Agenda 2023: Tackling Hunger, Malnutrition And Ensuring Food Security
The Chief Minister said merely because someone eats less as they cannot afford food or if a person eats more, does not mean they are getting less or more nutrition.
Those who are anaemic do not come from poor families alone, he said.
What is required is to make good food choices and change eating habits, especially of children, he added.
Vijayan also gave details of the measures being taken by his government for ensuring nutritious food to children.
He said that anganwadis are providing nutritious food to children particularly through the ‘Nutritious Childhood’ scheme under which those between 3-6 years of age are provided eggs and milk twice a week.
For this, Rs 61.5 crore has been earmarked in the state budget, he added.
Besides that there are 258 projects being run by the state under the Integrated Child Development Scheme to provide services to children and women as well as more than Rs 10,000 crore was spent in the last six-and-a-half years to curb rise in prices of essential foods, the CM said.
Vijayan further said the importance of nutritious food and nutrient dense super food, like eggs and milk, in strengthening and building the body’s immunity was explained by the World Health Organisation during the COVID-19 pandemic.
He expressed hope that the deliberations in the seminar would contribute to consolidate the goals achieved till now and to take it forward to those who are yet to benefit from the same.
This national seminar will be meaningful only when you reach to the needy children and ensure availability of nutritious food for them, he said.
Also Watch: Food Is About Basic Rights And Food Is Fundamental: Bishow Parajuli
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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 – the LGBTQ 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 current COVID-19 pandemic, the need for WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) 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, fight malnutrition, 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 like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and sanitation workers and menstrual hygiene. Banega Swasth India will also be taking forward the dream of Swasth Bharat, the campaign feels that only a Swachh or clean India where toilets are used and open defecation free (ODF) status achieved as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, can eradicate diseases like diarrhoea and the country can become a Swasth or healthy India.
