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BMP offers free midday meal to new mothers

Staff Reporter

Pact with Akshaya Patra Foundation; 3,000 women to benefit

BANGALORE: The Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) on Wednesday launched "Sanjeevini", a nutritious meal programme for expecting and nursing mothers from poor families. The civic body entered into an agreement with the Akshaya Patra Foundation to provide meals to identified beneficiaries at the selected distribution centres and a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed on Wednesday.

While BMP Additional Commissioner Gaurav Gupta signed the MoU on behalf of the civic body, Chitranga Chaitanya Das signed it on behalf of Akshaya Patra.

Explaining the objectives of the programme, BMP Commissioner K. Jothiramalingam said the civic body had taken up two health projects this year.

Health check-up

"We plan to have a free health check-up for schoolchildren and members of families living below poverty line and also supplement nutrition to pregnant and nursing mothers from the urban poor," he said.

The Commissioner said over 3,000 women will be identified as beneficiaries of this programme and will be provided nutrition for four months. The programme will be extended to more beneficiaries next year and suitable budgetary allocations will be made, he said.

The food will be distributed in select 30 centres set up in BMP schools. Expectant mothers from their fourth month of pregnancy and thereafter six months after delivery can avail of this benefit. For practical convenience, the time at which meals will be provided to these mothers will be just after the timings at which schoolchildren are offered midday meals.

The Medical Officers (MOs) of BMP hospitals will issue identity cards to beneficiaries. The pregnancy status, delivery date, family details and the school in which the mother can avail of the benefit will be mentioned in the card.

Cost

The BMP will bear the cost of the project, which is expected to cross Rs 18 lakhs at Rs. 6 per meal.

Mayor Mumtaz Begum said this programme is one of the new welfare measures initiated by the civic body this year.

"Although we had not allocated any funds in the budget for this programme, we have taken it up by re-appropriating funds from other heads of account," she added.

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