The Hindu : New Delhi News : MCD school children to get protein-calorie rich diet soon

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Friday, Jan 04, 2008
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New Delhi

MCD school children to get protein-calorie rich diet soon

Bindu Shajan Perappadan

Private players to maintain record of student’s haemoglobin levels
Iron, folic acid tablets supplements being tested in some schools

NEW DELHI: A wholesome meal for every child is what the soon-to-be-introduced revamped fortified mid-day meal is promising its end-users.

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi, which caters to nine lakh students in its 1,800 schools, has already short-listed various non-government organisations to supply the changed “robust” form of meal which will provide an iron/micronutrient and protein-calorie rich diet. It also plans to rope in private players to check and maintain record of the MCD school student’s haemoglobin levels.

“The revamped mid-day meal which will be made available by April this year is aimed at reducing the level of protein-calorie deficiency among students. However, the iron deficiency – the main cause of anaemia in children and adolescents – needs still to be tackled in an organised way. Nutrition interventions that specially build the stores of school going pre-adolescents are required to be initiated. Both dimensions supplementation of iron and folic acid and nutritional counselling for eating wisely is needed,” said Vinod Kumar Monga, Chairman of MCD’s Medical Relief and Public Health Committee. The civic body has already tested its weekly iron and folic acid tablets supplements in schools located in Shahdara South, Shahdara North and the West Zone. “Some of our schools have 100 per cent anaemia rate among children.”

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