Healthy snacks planned to fight malnutrition

Making announcements in the TN assembly after tabling the annual policy note, the Minister said that the state on a pilot basis will distribute special diet comprising flattened red rice with jaggery that will help the pregnant women easily absorb the nutrient value. The project will be taken up for pregnant women enrolled with the anganwadi centres located in Thanjavur, Cuddalore, Tiruvannamalai districts at a cost of Rs 82 lakhs.

Similarly, to address the malnutrition in kids attending anganwadis (state-run childcare centres), the Social Welfare Department will take up the distribution of candies made of sesame. This project will be implemented in anganwadis located in Pennagaram in Dharmapuri and Melanelathanallur in Tirunelveli at a cost of Rs 75 lakhs.

For kids attending the childcare centres in Salem, biscuits made of small grains will be distributed as evening snacks and the state has allocated Rs 49 lakhs. The children in the age group of 2 to 5 will be covered under these nutritional value schemes, besides the ongoing noon meal schemes will continue, the Minister clarified.

As part of the maintenance and repair works the state will spend Rs 3 crores to repair and improve the amenities in 47 childcare centres run by the social welfare department. To empower transgenders, the state will also open a dedicated tailoring cooperatives society for the third gender with a corpus of Rs 17.50 lakh. The state government will also take up new annexe building works for existing childcare centres in Thanjavur and Cuddalore at Rs 3.5 crore and another Rs 1.67 crore is allotted to install fire extinguishers in 6994 child care centres. The Minister also announced a smart class programme for visually-impaired students at a cost of Rs 1.08 crores.

Earlier in the day, Minister for Backward Classes and Minorities Welfare C Valarmathi announced that the state will install CCTV cameras in 425 in students’ hostel at a cost of Rs 4.25 crore. Valarmathi also said that the state would earmark Rs 6.42 crore to impart skill and spoken English training programmes for backward class students.