Chairing the Zonal Conference of State Governments and Stakeholders of Eastern region involving five states in Bhubaneswar, Dr. Munjpara Mahndrabhai, MoS for Women and Child Development said, in this rapidly changing world, there is a need to build the human and social capital based on the pillars of good nutrition, gender equality, proper education and ensure the rights of security of women and children. He said the government is constantly engaging itself on how to ensure the welfare of women and children who constitute  69 % of the country’s population. He said keeping this in mind the Government of India have rolled out three missions – Mission Poshan 2.0 to address the nutritional needs of women and children, Mission Shakti for women safety, security and empowerment and Mission Vatsalya for the welfare of children.

Addressing the participants, the Minister said there is a need to make timely interventions across all generations to improve nutrition among women and children. Dr. Munjapara said that Poshan 2.0 aims to promote nutrition awareness and good eating habits for sustainable health, wellbeing and immunity. He said “Our aim is to bring behavioral changes through local participation and accountability.” The Minister said, “During the last five years we have distributed 11.94 lakh Growth Monitoring Devices and 11 lakh three thousand Smart phones to the Anganwadi workers and have rolled out the Poshan Trackers to improve governance and identify and ensure treatment of malnourished children.” Speaking on the other two Missions, he said “Mission Vatsalya is aimed at supporting children in need of care by strengthening the existing statutory structure and delivery of emergency outreach services while Mission Shakti seeks to realize the government’s commitment on women-led development “the Minister added.

The MoS stressed that now that all the COVID related restriction are lifted, it is time to build a healthy society through focused interventions. “We are gathered here in this zonal conference to sensitize the states as they will be the implementing authorities of these schemes in the upcoming financial years,” the minister said.

Participating in the Conference, the State Women and Child Development Ministers of Odisha Smt Tukuni Sahu and West Bengal Dr Shashi Panja highlighted the steps and interventions taken by the respective states for the development and empowerment of women and children. Both the ministers assured full support in proper implementation of these three new missions.

Secretary, Ministry of Women & Child Development, Government of India, Shri Indevar Pandey highlighted in details the objectives and targets of the three new missions. “Several targets under the Sustainable Development Goals is fast approaching in 2030. The three missions are aimed at achieving the targets and states are expected to be active partners in it,” he said.

The zonal conference of the east zone involving delegates and stakeholders from five states such as Odisha, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Jharkhand today witnessed deliberation on a range of subjects related to the development and empowerment of women and children through focused interventions.

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SM/SSP/GCD