The Women and Child Development Department is making constant efforts to end the level of malnutrition in the state. Along with this, many innovations are being done to achieve the goal of well-nourished and healthy Madhya Pradesh. In this series, a MoU was signed between the state government and the American India Foundation (AIF) for the implementation of the project ‘Samagra’.
Director Women and Child Development Dr. Ram Rao Bhonsle and Director Public Health American India Foundation Dr. Mahesh Shrivas signed the MoU in the presence of Additional Chief Secretary Women and Child Development Ashok Shah.
Additional Chief Secretary Ashok Shah said that it is our priority to root out malnutrition in the state. The main objective of Project Samagra is to improve the nutrition level of children, enhance learning capacity and create opportunities for women empowerment and increase in their income.
Director Women and Child Development Dr. Bhonsle said that about 10 thousand children in the age group of 0 to 6 years are being benefited in Gyaraspur block of Vidisha district under Project Samagra. This pilot project will reach 229 Anganwadis, 184 self-help groups and 112 SHG kitchens in Gyaraspur block.
Dr. Bhonsle informed that the American India Foundation will provide THR and hot cooked meals for children under 6 years of age in anganwadi centers, quality home-based care to sick children, and enhance skills of frontline and health workers to provide nutritional counseling through Project Samagra. Apart from this, it will also work on strengthening linkages for timely referral of severely malnourished children and ensuring school readiness of children below the age of 6 years, as well as providing need-based learning material to Anganwadi centres.
AIF’s Country Director Mathew Joseph said that with this partnership with the Women and Child Development Department in Madhya Pradesh, special attention will be given to women, children and youth. Along with this, our aim is also to take advantage of the specialty and innovation of government schemes to improve the quality of service at the community level.
Joseph said that to assess the overall success of the project, an end-line survey would be conducted and progress would be regularly evaluated and periodic process reports would be prepared and shared with the state from time to time.
