'Mukhyamantri Dudh Uphaar Yojana' selected for Scotch Gold Award

• 08 May 2023

Why in News?

On 5 May 2023, Haryana's Women & Child Development Minister Kamlesh Dhanda said that to improve the nutritional and health status of children in the age group of 6 months to 6 years, pregnant women, lactating mothers in the state, the 'Mukhyamantri Doodh Uphaar Yojana', which is being run by the Women & Child Development Department, has been selected for the Scotch Gold Award.

Key Points

• It is worth mentioning that given the increasing danger of malnutrition among women and children in the state, under the guidance of the Chief Minister, the 'Mukhyamantri Doodh Uphaar Yojana' was started on 5 August 2020 during the Corona period.
• Under the 'Mukhyamantri Doodh Uphaar Yojana', a target was set to make skimmed milk available for 300 days a year at Anganwadi centres to remove the deficiency of vitamins A and D3 in identified children, pregnant women and lactating mothers.
• With the supervision of the department's headquarters, district-level officers, and the cooperation of the workers and assistants working at the Anganwadi centres, continuous improvement was seen in the health of the beneficiaries, especially in their nutritional status.
• In the state, 9 lacks 23 thousand children from 6 months to 6 years, 2 lakh 88 thousand pregnant women and lactating mothers have been provided milk in Rose, Cardamom, Chocolate, Vanilla, Butterscotch and Plain Milk flavours six days a week.
• Through this milk, the beneficiaries have got an abundant amount of protein, calories, calcium, magnesium, vitamin B12, vitamin A and D3, due to which there has been an increase of 3.67 per cent in the number of general category children in the state from the point of view of nutrition while there was a decrease of 3.66 per cent in moderately underweight children.
• It is known that the Skoch Institute encourages efforts to bring change through innovative efforts from the socio-administrative point of view at the national level and in the past also various departments of Haryana state were honoured for their innovative efforts.