PUNE: The union minister of Women and Child Development
Maneka Gandhi recently launched the
IAP HealthPhone programme.
The IAP HealthPhone programme is the world’s largest digital mass education programme for addressing the
malnutrition in women and children. This programme is launched by the
Indian Academy of Pediatrics (IAP) in partnership with the Ministry of Women and Child Development, UNICEF and supported by Vodafone India.
This programme aims to tackle the challenge of malnutrition in mothers and children across India.
The press statement issued by ministry states that the said that the problem of malnutrition in India is a well-known fact and the government has been taking various steps to address this through a number of programmes.
Malnutrition is partly an issue of lack of means of nutrition and partly lack of knowledge about proper method of nutrition. The ministry through its ICDS programme has been providing supplementary nutrition to the pregnant and lactating mothers as well as children upto the age of 6 years.
The ministry has also been undertaking information and education campaigns to sensitize people about the correct nutritional methods. In this direction the ministry had produced a series of videos in all national languages so as to reach out to every citizen of the country. This initiative will add to the ministry’s efforts on tackling malnutrition, minister added.