BHUBANESWAR: The state government has identified four areas for the all round development of children and women in the state. The four areas are nutrition and early childhood development, child protection under Mission Vatsalya, women’s safety and women’s empowerment.
The goals had been formulated following the summit convened by the Ministry of Women and Child Development in New Delhi on October 8 and 9. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had chaired the valedictory function on October 9.
Deputy chief minister Pravati Parida, who reviewed the preparations, said under nutrition and early childhood development, the state government aims to improve the quality of take home ration and hot cooked meals, strengthen nutrition monitoring through the Poshan tracker, improve early identification and referral of children with severe acute malnutrition and enhance Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) services.
Parida said that the anganwadi centres will also be made conducive to pre-school learning, promoting locally sourced nutritious food, and strengthening parental engagement and children’s transition to formal schooling.
Under Mission Vatsalya and child protection, the focus will be on strengthening a prevention-led, family-centred approach to child welfare. Key priorities include identifying vulnerable households, promoting family-based care over institutionalisation, strengthening rehabilitation and aftercare support for children leaving institutional care, and improving accountability through regular reviews and better integration of child-protection data, she said.
Parida said the government also aims to strengthen one stop centres, improve coordination among police, health, legal and rehabilitation services and establish more effective survivor-support mechanisms under women’s safety. Preventing child marriage through community participation and village-level vulnerability mapping will be another priority, she added.
The government will also operationalise a women’s economic empowerment framework across all 30 districts, using relevant data to track women’s participation in the workforce, earnings, entrepreneurship and economic agency, while setting district-level goals and strengthening monitoring mechanisms, she added.