CHENNAI: Greater Chennai Corporation officials are looking to monitor nutrition parameters of school students in the city, as part of the Ministry of Women & Child Development’s Poshan Abhiyaan.
“We’ll keep track of the parameters of all students and it will be monitored over a period of three years. The data will be revised every year,” said a senior corporation official who is coordinating the programme in the district.
Ministry of Women & Child Development is one of the five districts in the State selected for implementation of the scheme alongside Villupuram, Dindigul, Ariyalur and The Nilgiris. During the second phase, the scheme is to be implemented in Ramanathapuram, Tiruvallur, Tiruchi, Virudhunagar, Tirunelveli and Kanniyakumari districts.
The scheme is aimed at reducing stunting among children up to six years of age to 25 per cent by 2022 from 38.4 per cent.
“There is no set framework as to what should be done and what should not. We plan to do whatever it takes to counter malnutrition, from creating awareness to monitoring students,” the official said.
The scheme is to be implemented with the help of project officers, divisional revenue officers, corporation zonal officers and health and family welfare department officials.
To keep track of younger children, Anganwadi workers have been provided with mobile phones and the parameters would be monitored through a common application software, said corporation sources.