5 Sep :The Speaker of Lok Sabha, Shri Somnath Chatterjee has said that the Parliament has to play an important role in the development of women and children and Members of Parliament should raise the issues concerning women and children more often so that focus could be brought and policies and programmes could be made positively oriented towards both the important segments of the society.
Inaugurating an exhibition organised by the Ministry of Women and Child Development as a part of National Nutritional Week here today, Shri Chatterjee said that ill-nourished population cannot contribute to the growth of the country and present level of the mal-nutrition is totally unacceptable. All efforts should be made to deal with the issue of mal-nutrition on priority basis, he asserted.
Highlighting the efforts being made by the Government to treat the mal-nutrition through its various programmes the Minister of Women and Child Development, Smt. Renuka Chowdhury said that well-nourished children are the asset of the country. Investment in the nutrition can give many-fold returns. She said that it is need of hour to create awareness about the nutritional needs of the children to have sound foundation of the future citizens. On the occasion the Minister also launched the Mother and Child Card to keep the track of health at Anganwadis.
The purpose of three-day Exhibition on Nutrition inaugurated at India Gate Lawns is to create wider awareness about nutritious food and inculcate healthy eating habits. This will also provide opportunity to learn about changing nutritional needs throughout the life-cycle and how these could be best met from locally available foods at economical cost. Cultural programmes will also be held to disseminate information on nutrition and health through magic shows, songs, folk dances etc.