Welfare measures for children to be taken up

Imphal, Oct 20 (UNI) With a view to fighting malnutrition between the age group of 0 to 6, the Centre has released a sum of Rs 2155.18 crore during the current year under Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme in the entire country.

The focus will be to improve the nutritional status of the children, pregnant and lactating mothers, state Family Welfare officials here today said adding if adequate food supplements were not given, children and the pregnant mother would be facing physical problems, and overall development of the children will be affected.

If the schemes were properly implemented, the poor parents would be benefited, officials added.

He said Manipur will get about Rs 1435.36 lakh, while other North Eastern states like Arunachal Pradesh will get Rs 886.75 lakh, Asom the maximum amount of Rs 7931.1 lakh, Meghalaya Rs 870.16 lakh, Mizoram Rs 556.96 lakh, Nagaland Rs 1241.90 lakh, Sikkim Rs 217.47 lakh and Tripura Rs 1274.63 lakh during the current fiscal.

The Centre will provide 50 per cent cost of the supplementary nutrition to the states and now the scheme was extended to 546.31 lakh beneficiaries, including 452.88 lakh children, 93.42 lakh pregnant and lactating mothers, through a network of about 7.45 lakh Anganwadis in the country, officials added.

Officials admitted that the distribution system needed to be strengthened and the scheme was in vogue since 1975 . The main beneficiaries should be those below poverty line, officials added.

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