PM Modi to launch several schemes for women, children in Gujarat on June 18

A programme that focuses on the first 1000 days of a woman’s pregnancy is one among a bouquet of several schemes that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is launching during his two-day trip to Gujarat, as the state heads to the polls in December.

With a renewed focus on nutrition, the union ministry of women and child development is additionally pursuing a relook into its malnutrition data, senior ministry officials said.

Union minister of women and child development Smriti Irani, on the sidelines of a zonal meet at Kevadia, said that three rounds of third-party evaluations will take place on malnutrition numbers in Poshan tracker, the Centre’s nutrition calculator.

“This is a relook into the data to analyse the outcomes of the government’s efforts. And to see if there’s any area where changes can be made,” Irani said. World Bank is one of the third-party organisations that are conducting evaluations.

On Saturday, Modi will be in Vadodara where he will launch the Mukhyamantri Matrushakti Yojana and the Poshan Sudha Yojana. Under the MMY scheme, beneficiaries registered under the Gujarat government’s health system and part of the ICDS scheme availing benefits of the Anganwadi system will be given four kgs of take-home ration.

“This includes a kilo of tuvar dal, two kgs of chana dal, and one litre of groundnut oil. This will be an OTP-based delivery system,” Avantika Darji, joint director at the Gujarat government’s ICDS system said.

An amount of Rs 811 has been set aside on the state’s budget, and seven lakh women have been registered under a portal, she added. The delivery is an online process.

The other scheme that Modi is launching is the Poshan Sudha Scheme under which pregnant and lactating women in Gujarat’s 14 tribal districts will be given a full meal five days a week. The scheme was first piloted in six districts and it will be scaled up.

The ministry’s reevaluation of malnutrition numbers is significant since NFHS data shows that 19 per cent of Indian children between 2 months and six years of age are severely malnourished (SAM). In the Parliament, Irani had in April said that Poshan Tracker data shows that close to 2 per cent of children are SAM. The ministry said that while the NFHS data relied on a sample size of 6 lakh children, the tracker had real-time data of 1.8 crore children.