Khammam: The aim of achieving good health of women and children, particularly pregnant women and mothers of newborns, teenage girls is not being fulfilled as expected. The aim was also to keep them free of malnutrition and anaemia.
There is a check list with 21 points to achieve the target. The items include evolving plans for women and child anganwadi-wise, promoting institutional deliveries, family planning, review of health of these sections every month, addressing the problems in mother’s feeding children, identifying ailments among children, immunisation deficiency and anaemia among women.
Poshan Abhiyaan is a multi-ministerial convergence mission with the vision to ensure attainment of a malnutrition-free India by 2022.
Training of anganwadi workers was not completed so far as also training of health workers. It was found that there are 36,578 children of 0-6 years who are underweight and another 6,926 severe underweight children in the district.
Another 331 children whose weight is alarming were sent to the area hospital in Khammam where they are being treated. From now onwards, women and children will be kept under the scanner of health workers and program managers. The programme also aims at improving the services of anganwadis.
The scheme will place a robust convergence mechanism and other components that will strive to create synergy.
There are a number of schemes directly and indirectly affecting the nutritional status of children (0-6 years of age), pregnant women and lactating mothers. Anganwadi supervisors should organise birthday functions and seemantham (a function for pregnant women) to create a good feeling among them. Such activities are not being taken up in many centres.
