'1000 Days' campaign launched for mother, child care in West Bengal

KOLKATA: West Bengal Department of Child Development and Social Welfare and UNICEF today launched '1000 Days' campaign to reach out to every mother and child across the state for their healthier and prosperous future.

"The 1000 days between a woman's pregnancy and her child's second birthday offer an unique window of opportunity to shape healthier and more prosperous future. The right nutrition and care during this period can have a profound impact on a child's ability to grow, learn and rise out of poverty," state Women and Child Welfare minister, Shashi Panja said.

The campaign, which will be carried out for the next 12 months with a budget of Rs 1,474 crore to be funded by both the centre and the state, would be taken to every block in the state.

It would engage a large network of NGOs, institutions and community mobilisers to reach out to young mothers, the minister said.

Today's event commemorated 40 years of Integrated Child Development Services Scheme ( ICDS).

The programme was started in 1975 to address nutritional needs of children and there are around 1,16,000 ICDS centres in the state now, Panja said.

Malnutrition among children in the state currently reads 19.84 per cent and it was 32 plus per cent during the erstwhile Left Front regime, she added.