Bhubaneswar: In order to address the issue of malnutrition among adolescent girls, pregnant and ailing women, the State Government has decided to spend Rs 2579.33 Crore under scheme Mukhyamantri Sampoorna Pushti Yojana (MSPY) in five years from current financial year. OMBADC has taken a lead in funding the Flagship Program.
According to official sources, the State Government has implemented SOPAN (Strategy for Odisha’s Pathway to Accelerated Nutrition) scheme from the financial year 20-21 to 22-23, with an allocation of Rs 189.71 Crore.
It is a state-funded targeted scheme that seeks to improve nutrition outcomes. This was implemented in nutritionally vulnerable beneficiaries covering 125 nutritionally vulnerable blocks of 22 districts in the State.
Now, during the last Budget Speech, Finance Minister Niranjan Pujari has announced a new scheme Mukhyamantri Sampoorna Pushti Yojana (MSPY) replacing the SOPAN scheme.
However, it has been decided to cover the entire 338 Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) projects of the state, with dovetailing funds from Odisha Mineral Bearing Areas Development Corporation (OMBADC) and District Mineral Foundation (DMF).
There is provision of total expenditure of Rs 2579.33 Crore over a period of 5 years from FY 23-24 to FY 27-28 under the scheme from State Budget, OMBADC and DMF, the officials said.
Under the State Budget, the Government has made provision of Rs.250 Crore in the Budget Estimate, 2023-24 for the MSPY.
The initiatives taken up by the Women and Child Development Department under the MSPY proposal pertains to adoption of the life cycle approach to positively affect the nutrition outcomes for mothers, adolescent girls, and children below six years of age.
The project components are related to a special nutrition package for adolescent girls, Additional take home ration for mothers, community-based management of SAM children, augmented food for Acute Malnutrition(AM) children and energy dense THR for severely underweight children.
These interventions will improve the nutritional status of mothers, adolescent girls and children enrolled in the AWCs. The targeted beneficiaries to be benefited out of OMBADC funding in 78 ICDS projects are 1,61,550 adolescent girls, 1,84,000 pregnant and lactating mothers and more than 6000 malnourished children.
The interventions proposed earlier i.e. weekly nutrition supplements to adolescent girls (15-19 years) and observation of Kishori Mela would continue to be implemented, in all 338 ICDS projects of the State.
There is provision for coverage of adolescent girls (14- 18 years) under the scheme for adolescent girls (SAG) of Government of India in 10 Aspirational Districts where the girls would be covered under nutrition and non-nutritional components, they said.
However, in these 10 districts, where SAG is being implemented, the adolescent girls (14-18 years) would be excluded from the nutrition interventions, and only girls (18-19 years) would receive the entitlements.
Considering the physical inability of pregnant women & lactating mothers to attend AWCs for spot feeding, along with the social dynamics, the provision for additional Take Home Ration (THR) in the form of nutrient rich food products, including millets.
The renewed focus is on coverage of AM children which will considerably reduce the progressive expenditure on Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) children.