Jagan aims to make AP country's best in women, child welfare

AMARAVATI: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy directed officials on Wednesday to pay a special attention on achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the field of women and child welfare by providing nutritious food to lactating mothers and children as well as basic infrastructure at all Anganwadis across the state.

The Chief Minister stated during a review meeting on women and child welfare development held here on Wednesday that the state should become number one in the country in women and child welfare and that officials should work towards this aim.

He stated that Markfed will begin distributing nutritious food to Anganwadis in December. With the budget increasing from Rs.500 crore to Rs.1900 crore, there is a special need to ensure that the eggs and milk supplied to Anganwadis are of high quality while not neglecting the quantity.

He suggested that proper steps be taken from the start to run the curriculum in English medium to the children through Foundation Schools and Satellite Foundation Schools established under the Nadu-Nedu programme.

The government has prioritised women's and children's welfare alongside education, health, and agriculture, and regular supervision and monitoring of Anganwadis will ensure their efficient process. He asked the officials to work together with the education department to own the buildings and provide the best infrastructure possible.

Sending out a clear message that the government is expecting results in this area starting from November or December, the CM directed them to make arrangements in all Anganwadis to store food to maintain its quality. Suggesting that welfare assistants in village secretariats, Accredited Social Health Activist(ASHA) workers and village clinics should take the initiative to ensure that proper Medicare and nutritious food is provided to the children on right time at Anganwadis.

Referring to the legal obstacles being faced by the Government in the recruitment of supervisors for monitoring Anganwadis, the CM directed the department to complete recruitment by December by overcoming all problems in this regard. The monitoring should be done efficiently by supervisors by providing geo tagging and creating necessary Apps. For this, the Government will distribute nearly 57,000 mobile phones to all Anganwadis and supervisors.