The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Child development project extended for 18 months

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Sep 10, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Child development project extended for 18 months

By Our Staff Reporter

CHENNAI, SEPT. 9. The World Bank-funded Integrated Child Development Services (WB-ICDS) project will be extended for a further 18 months in Tamil Nadu.

The project, which was scheduled to end this month, has received a further fillip with the extetion, the World Bank Consultant, P. Subramaniam, said today.

In the first phase, it will be extended for nine months. After implementation, it would be evaluated and a further extention of nine months given, he said. Mr. Subramaniam was speaking at the nutrition week celebrations organised here by the WB-ICDS III project. Tamil Nadu received Rs. 92 crores from the World Bank, of which 60 per cent was spent.

He said though the State was in the forefront of development activities, especially in controlling the population growth rate and severe malnutrition, a lot of work had to be done in controlling infant mortality, micronutrient deficiencies and anaemia.

Malnutrition-free status

The WB-ICDS III project coordinator, S. Chandramohan, said Tamil Nadu was committed to attaining a malnutrition-free status and had drawn up various programmes to achieve this.

The 18-point programme of the Chief Minister provided a major impetus to improving the health and nutrition status of women and children.

The Chennai Corporation Commissioner, M.P. Vijayakumar, said that after more than two decades' experience in managing malnutrition, the State had brought down the percentage of severely malnourished children to 0.1 and mild malnourishment to five.

However, the percentage of moderately malnourished children was still high at 38. To bring this down further, the process of monitoring would have to undergo slight changes, he said. It would have to become child-specific, with each child with a problem being targeted for effective intervention.

Last year, the civic body had promised to repair noon meal centres in the city, but only two appeals came from the centres. Mr. Vijayakumar hoped that more centres would use the opportunity provided by the Corporation to upgrade facilities at the noon meal centres.

A sum of Rs. 4.5 crores was sanctioned by the Corporation to build new buildings for centres which were in a dilapidated condition.

While complimenting the State on its malnutrition policy, the UNICEF Regional Representative, Tim Schaffter, said all departments would have to work together to make the dream of a malnutrition-free State a reality. He pointed out the importance of ingesting iodised salt, which had a major role to play in improving the IQ of children and reducing the chances of abortion and low birth weight babies.

SHGs hailed

The Social Welfare Minister, Vijayalakshmi Palanisamy, urged the staff of the department and all related government departments to work together to make the State malnutrition free. She commended the role of women self-help groups in this endeavour.

The Health Minister, Thalavai N. Sundaram, explained the role of the Health department in curbing malnutrition.

The Deputy Mayor, R. Thiagarajan, and the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board chairman, N. Balaganga, participated in the celebrations.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Tamil Nadu