Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to Work on Indian Govt's National Nutrition Mission

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to design software program for monitoring National Nutrition Mission.

Melinda Gates, co-chair of the foundation, met Maneka Gandhi, Minister of Women and Child Development in this regard on April 17. Maneka Gandhi said, "We recognize that we need to take the problem of malnutrition in a mission mode with a physical target-driven approach for progressively eliminating the problem."

The mission will reach out to every malnourished child with coordinated and targeted delivery of health and supplementary nutrition services. "There will be extensive use of technology to prepare the anganwadi workers, build the capacity of the workers and monitor the progress on a real-time basis. I welcome the willingness of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to partner with us, in order to ensure that every child has the best possible start in life," Maneka said.

Under the National Nutrition Mission, anganwadi workers will be provided with tablet devices and weighing scales linked to GPS to monitor nutrition levels on a regular basis. To test the quality of food being supplied, nutrition laboratories would be set up under the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS).

"I am happy to see that the government of India has recognized the need for a renewed focus on maternal and child malnutrition. I believe every child deserves the chance to live a healthy and productive life, and nutrition plays a critical role in physical and cognitive development," said Melinda.

Melinda assured that her foundation would assist in training the anganwadi workers.



Source: Medindia