Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Having made an appeal to the society to extend helping hand to anganwadi centres to make malnourished and undernourished children healthy ones, the government has invoked the God rather certain God forms simultaneously to offer nutritious food items to such children as and when they feel hungry during their stay at the Centres, say officials.
Now, a number of anganwadi centres have been selected where certain food items are available all the time till the centres are open for the day where children can have the food.
These food items are in addition to the cooked food the children are provided with at the centres by the government. Such food items are made with food grains, edible oil etc which are donated by people under ‘Poshan Matka’ campaign.
“We have seen Lord Krishna’s image of childhood with a laddoo in one hand. Similarly, Lord Ganesha is seen sitting with a plate before Him full of ‘Laddoos’. But in both the images these Gods are not seen eating these laddoos. It has a clear message for the society that those who are affluent should help the particular section of society which is needy with food rather than nutritious food”, said an official wanting not to be quoted.
The concept has been given the name of ‘Laddoo Gopal’ under which the children are being provided nutritious food items.
When contacted additional chief secretary, Woman and Child Development, Ashok Shah said he would not like to comment on the God forms but the concept was really a novel one to fight against malnutrition effectively.
He said, “The first 1000 days are very important in the life of a child as far as his health is concerned. Nothing like it if a child is provided nutritious food as and when he feels hungry. The food items provided include peanut, gram, laddoo, chikki, dry fruits etc which are placed on plates in all four corners of the anganwadi centres. Any child can have this any time during his stay at the centre.”
He said this concept was implemented in more than 40000 anganwadi centres across the state and would be expanded to cover remaining anganwadi centres soon.
(To receive our E-paper on whatsapp daily, please click here. To receive it on Telegram, please click here. We permit sharing of the paper's PDF on WhatsApp and other social media platforms.)
