Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The ‘Healthy Boy-Girl Competitions’, to achieve the goal of ‘Suposhit Bharat’, scheduled for Monday has been cancelled.
The seven-day contest was to be held from March 21-27 in urban and rural areas of all the districts of the state at Anganwadi centres, panchayats, schools, special camps, health centres, homes etc.
The Woman and Child Development Department of the state government was organising the event, anchored by the Union Ministry of Woman and Child Development.
“I don’t know the reason but the event has been cancelled. I got the call from our officials regarding the cancellation in the morning today,” says a worker at the Anganwadi near Ankur School, Bhopal.
One of the officials of the state department told the Free Press that the Union Ministry of Woman and Child Development has cancelled the event due to Poshan Pakhwada activities.
“A nutrition drive of the government of India ‘Poshan Pakhwada’ is already running twice in March. So, the timing of both events is not matching. We will hold the event after Poshan Pakhwada.,” said the official, adding that earlier the event was cancelled due to Covid-19 pandemic.
The objective of the competition is to improve the nutritional status of the age group of 0-6 years and to create an emotional connect of the community at large with issues related to health and nutrition of children. Along with this, the aim is to make the families and community aware of the nutrition of children of all sections and areas of the society by including children up to the age of 6 years of the area left out of the Anganwadi services and to promote feeling of competition among the family and children to stay healthy. Its entry will be recorded on the online module of the Nutrition Tracker app.
In the healthy boy-girl competitions, the physical measurement of children was to be done at the Anganwadi for the first two days between 9 am to 5 pm. Apart from this, physical measurement of children was to be done at the centre every day from March 23 to 27 from 9 am to 1 pm. The physical measurement of the ‘missing’ children of Tola, Majre and uncovered areas was to be taken by the Anganwadi workers and allied organisations by visiting the beneficiary's house.
In urban areas which are outside the Anganwadi centre, physical measurements of children from birth to 6 years of age was to be taken from house to house in each colony/housing society.
