The Women and Child Development Minister, Smt
Krishna Tirath launched the Multi Sectoral Nutrition Programme (MSNP) and
National Resource Platform (NRP) on the occasion of National Girl Child Day, here
today. The National Girl Child Day is
celebrated on 24th January to commemorate the day when late Smt. Indira Gandhi was sworn in as the first woman Prime Minister
of the country. This year’s theme of Girl Child Day is ‘Safety and Development of girl child’. the Multi -Sectoral
Nutrition Programme (MSNP) aims to bring inter-sectoral convergence and
coherence in policy, planning and action with core focus on both direct
interventions and indirect interventions for maternal and child under
nutrition, thus providing a continuum of care and follow a life cycle approach.
The programme will be implemented as a special intervention in 200 high burden
districts spread over 19 States, beginning with 100 districts in the current
financial year.
The Minister also launched the Nutrition
Resource Platform (NRP) that aims to collect, collate and make available
resources and materials on nutrition and child development to various
stakeholders. It will also be an interactive knowledge resource base which
facilitates real time interaction, exchange of ideas and discussions. NRP is
functional at National Institute of
Public Cooperation and Child Development (NIPCCD) and is a virtual
repository with the support of Food and Nutrition Board and NIC.
Smt. Tirath said that child sex ratio in the 0-6 year age group declined steeply from 927 in 2001 to 919 in 2011 implying
that millions of girls went missing in just a decade. The practice of child
marriage is still prevalent in the country as 47 % of women in the age 20-24 were married before the age 18.Thus
the Ministry has embarked on a multidimensional strategy for the welfare of the
girl child for bringing about attitudinal changes in the society towards the
girl child through legislative, preventive, advocacy and programmatic inputs.
Highlighting the success of Sabla scheme the Minister said that one crore
sablas will be trained as Ahimsa Messengers through NIPCCD and they will help
to spread awareness on gender issues.