‘Matrupurna’, a midday meal scheme launched by the State government for pregnant women and new mothers, will be implemented in the district on October 2 on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti.
The scheme primarily aims at ensuring these women receive nutritious food so that they deliver healthy babies and avoid malnourishment.
The Department of Women and Child Development has identified around 53,812 women in the district eligible to receive the midday meal. According to the officials, while 26,797 of these women are pregnant, the remaining 27,015 have given birth recently.
The food will be provided to them at Anganwadi centres along with the midday meal scheme being implemented for children. The women will be served hot meals at around 2,313 such centres across the district.
The officials said that owing to malnourishment among the pregnant women, their unborn babies do not get adequate nourishment, which in turn affects the infant mortality rate. The women also face life threatening situations as the chances of blood loss is high during delivery.
The scheme has been designed to ensure the supply of food for at least 300 days — from the beginning of pregnancy till 45 days after delivery. However, the food will not be served on government holidays.
The officials said that the meals will consist of rice and sambar, vegetables, eggs, 200 ml milk, jaggery, soaked Bengal gram, and other nutritious foods. Besides this, calcium and iron tablets would also be supplied.
The government is spending around ₹21 on each woman daily for the scheme.
