Vijayawada,

Date: 09.06.2022

With 8 years of tireless commitment and drive to promote, protect and empower the women and children of this nation, the Government has made several efforts and policy interventions that have shown fruitful results said Minister of State, Ministry of Women and Child Development, Dr. Mahendrabhai Munjapara.

Addressing the South Zonal Conference on Aspirational Districts held in Visakhapatnam today,  Dr. Mahendrabhai siad the Ministry of Women and Child Development is dedicated to working toward protecting women and girls from violence and abuse while challenging the stigmas against reporting crimes which would overall create a much safer society. The Conference was attended by Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, besides Andhra Pradesh.

He said that since 2015, 708 ‘One Stop Centres’ have been operationalised in India and 10 across the globe, for survivors of gender-based violence and over 5.2 lakh women have been supported by these One Stop Centres.

He emphasised that the Nirbhaya Fund constituted by the Centre has supported 34 new projects / schemes with targeted interventions which have been appraised taking the total amount to nearly Rs. 10 thousand Crore, adding that the purpose of the fund is to enhance protection and security and make the public spaces safer for women.

Underlining the fact that nutrition is the focal point of health and well-being, which is directly linked to human resource development, productivity and ultimately to national growth, the Minister of State for Women and Child Development said, in the last 5 years, the Union government distributed nearly 12 lakh growth monitoring devices and over 11 lakh smartphones to Anganwadi workers and rolled out the POSHAN tracker, to improve governance and identify and ensure the treatment of malnourished children.

Today, he said, there are over 12 lakh pucca Anganwadi Centres across the country having drinking water facilities and 11 lakh plus Centres having functional toilets with the aim to strengthen infrastructure in all remaining Anganwadis.

 The Minister further emphasised on other women-centric interventions beyond WCD, viz., PM Mudra Yojana, Stand Up India, Start-Up India and PM Jan Arogya Yojana, expanding the idea of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ for women-led households.

He summed up the goals of the Government’s efforts which remain in promoting holistic and balanced nutrition, ensuring empowerment, safety and protection of women and children under the 3 umbrella Missions, i.e., POSHAN, Shakti and Vatsalya.

Earlier, the Secretary, Women and Child Development Shri Indevar Pandey, in his opening remarks, laid more emphasis on the nutritional needs of the country which needs to be given utmost importance, as India is one of the youngest populated countries in the world which needs to be healthy for the country to be prosperous and developed.

‘As child is the asset of the nation’, he said with proper utilisation of Poshan Tracker the health status of a child can easily be assessed for further course corrections and highlighted the importance of district-wise correct feedback which would greatly help in focussing on the needs and aspirations at Aganwadi and Panchayat levels. Saying this, he urged State governments, to pay more attention on such issues while implementing Poshan Abhiyan. He pointed that 54% of children in the age group of 0-6 years are being covered through the Anganwadi network spread across the country. 

In urban areas, especially, in slums and backward areas, Shri Pandey said, the nutritional as well as educational needs of children between 3-6 years are to be kept in mind to be addressed properly. He emphasised the need to have more qualified and trained Anganwadis for successful implementation of Poshan alongwith Education.

He also touched upon Mission Vatsalya, adoption procedures and amendment of Juvenile Justice rules, and Mission Shakti in order to facilitate participation of women in workforce in large numbers for enhanced productivity and growth rate of the country.

Speaking about Visakhapatnam, the urban areas of which are well developed and the need of conducting Aspirational Districts’ conference in the city, Shri Pandey said the district has huge trackts of tribal areas which are under developed and are languishing in backwardness. He said the Union government wants an overall development in all pockets of the country.

Collectors and District Magistrates from Aspiratonal Districts representing Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu explained the measures being implented in their respective districts for women and child development.

The meeting was attended by Mission Director, Aspirational Districts Programmes Niti Aayog, Govt. of India, Shri Rakesh Ranjan, Minister for Women & Child, Differently Abled and Senior Citizens of Andhra Pradesh Smt. Usha Shricharan, Principal Secretary (WCD) to Government of Andhra Pradesh, Smt. AR Anuradha, Addl. Secretary (WCD) Government of India, Ms. Aditi Das Rout, also particpated.

 

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