Mulastanam panchayat of Aalamuru mandal in East Godavari district has been selected for the ‘Child-Friendly Gram Panchayat-2020 Award from Andhra Pradesh.
The panchayat is one among 30 panchayats from several States and Union Territories chosen by the Union Panchayati Raj Ministry for the award, which was instituted to incentivise best-performing panchayats in the country.
Mulastanam, with 416 children, has achieved zero child marriages, nil dropout rate, and several other milestones during the 2018-19 academic year, all of which helped it win the award. Another major achievement was that none of the children in the age group of six months to five years were malnourished.
Mulastanam Panchayat Secretary U. Renuka told The Hindu that it was a proud moment for them. “In the category of Girl Child Hygiene, all the 216 girls (10-19 age group) have used sanitary pads and are aware of healthy practices. We never had a history of any early marriage or child marriage in the panchayat in recent years,” said Ms. Renuka, who has been serving in the panchayat for the past five years.
Ms. Renuka said that she got to know of the panchayat being selected for the award from her higher officials. Residents were happy on hearing the news. “The panchayat staff focus on preventing early age marriages and functioning of government schools are a few parameters that brought our panchayat a national-level recognition,” said D. Ramakrishnamma, a village elder.
The panchayat has a dedicated village-level child protection committee that is active functioning on the children's issues and welfare round the year. The students’ school attendance rate is above 90 percent in all the five government schools functioning in the panchayat in 2018-19.
“It’s a proud moment to be associated with this local body at a time when it gets the recognition from the Central government,” added Ms. Renuka.
