Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Wednesday said AMLAN- Anemia Mukta Lakhya Abhiyan in state will be a multipronged approach for accelerated reduction of anemia among targeted groups. Secretary to CM VK Pandian moderated the meeting.
The programme will be carried out by several departments including Health & Family Welfare, School & Mass Education, Women & Child Development, Mission Shakti and ST & SC Development Department, he said launching the programme.
Terming the mission a giant leap, the Chief Minister said that it’s our own programme for making the state free from anaemia, especially women and children.
Launching the programme on a virtual platform, the Chief Minister said that the programme will benefit about 1.37 crore people, which includes pregnant women, lactating mothers, women of reproductive age group, adolescents and children.
He further said that the major interventions are strengthening iron and folic acid supplementation, testing for haemoglobin, treatment of anaemic cases, capacity building of service providers and social behaviour change communication.
“This programme will be rolled out in 55,000 government and government-aided schools and 74,000 Anganwadi centers across the State,” he announced.
Claiming that that all the endeavours of the State Government is focussed on the principle of ‘Every life is precious’, he said that the State Government has prioritized for development of the health sector in our state.
“With intensive focus on public health schemes, Odisha has shown improvement in many health indicators like Immunisation, Infant Mortality Rate, Maternal Mortality Ratio, infant and young child feeding practices, and under-nutrition. However, anaemia remains a major public health challenge across the country,” he added.
Mr.Patnaik urged the concerned departments and on-field service providers to work in a concerted manner for successful implementation of AMLAN for achieving Anaemia Mukta Odisha.
He also released the operational guidelines for AMLAN.
Chief Secretary Suresh Chandra Mohapatra said that this programme will definitely succeed with coordinated efforts of all departments. Previously, we have done it in management of Covid-19, he added.
Health & Family Welfare Secretary Shalini Pandit and Director Family Welfare were present at the function while Principal Secretaries and Secretaries of several departments, officials from all districts joined online.