A review meeting of the implementation of special packages of both the Central and State governments for tribal development in Attappady held here on Friday has decided to introduce a ‘mother-child tracking system’ to prevent the death of tribal infants due to malnutrition and other reasons.
Presiding over the meeting, S.M. Vijayanand, Additional Secretary in the Union Ministry of Rural Development, said that information of 4,500 tribal children had been collected and uploaded on the website. These information were collected by junior public health nurses through Anganwadis. The nurses could be contacted for urgent medical help by sending them an sms on their mobile phones, he said.
The meeting also decided to earmark Rs. 98 crore for the empowerment of tribal women in Attappady by implementing various projects under the Kudumbasree Mission. Another Rs.76 crore was allotted for constructing 16 roads (70 km) under the PMGSY in Attappady.
The meeting was attended by Unicef Southern Regional Co-ordinator S. Satheesh; M.N. Roy, former Additional Chief Secretary of West Bengal and Advisor to Rural Development Department of the Central Government; Dr. R.R. Herman of National Institute of Rural Development; Unicef Nutrient Farhad Sayeed; District Collector K. Ramachandran; District Medical Officer K. Venugopalan, and Integrated Tribal Development Project Officer P.V. Radhakrishnan among others.
