Nutrition programme for pregnant, lactating women

With 36.2% of children in Karnataka still malnourished, the state government has decided to scale up its supplementary nutrition programme by focusing on pregnant and lactating women.

On October 2, the government will launch the universal maternal nutrition programme ‘Mathrupoorna’, where around 12 lakh pregnant and lactating mothers will be served one hot meal every day through anganwadi centres.

The programme will be jointly implemented by the departments of Women and Child Development and the Health and Family welfare, where the focus will be on pregnancy weight gain.

Pregnant and lactating women have to enrol themselves at their nearest anaganwadi centres, where they will be served rice, lentils (dal/sambar), vegetables, boiled egg, chikki and 200 ml of milk for not just the entire duration of their pregnancy, but also six months after their delivery.

The meal will meet 40 to 45% RDA (recommended dietary allowance) with 1,342 calories, 41 gm protein and 578 mg calcium. Along with the meal, beneficiaries will be administered iron folic acid, calcium and deworming tablets. In addition to this, the health department will impart nutrition counselling.