Srinagar :Advisor to Lieutenant Governor, Farooq Khan today complimented the field officers of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme for surpassing the target of 55000 beneficiaries under Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY) for the year 2020-21 by more than 4000 cases.The meeting was attended by Secretary, Social Welfare Department, Sheetal Nanda; DG, Women & Child Development, Mir Tariq Ali; DG, Social Welfare, Kashmir, Bashir Ahmad Dar; Mission Director, ICDS, Rubina Kousar and other officers of the department.The Jammu based officers participated in the meeting through video conferencing.The Advisor enquired from the officers of the department about their performance in implementing different components of the scheme. He remarked that all the good work would be duly recognized and rewarded by the government. He asked them that it should be their endeavor to provide all the services as per the set specifications to the target beneficiaries without any delay.He urged upon the officers to set new benchmarks once they reach the targets set by them. He enjoined upon them that there is no limit for good work and each of them should aspire for reaching from one milestone to next with a missionary zeal.The Advisor also advised the officers to engage PRI representatives to implement the scheme efficiently in the villages. He asked them to take their assistance in aadhar seeding of beneficiaries and completion of other departmental formalities. He asked them to establish Anganwadi Centres (AWCs) in the houses of deserving families who have no connection with any departmental officers.The Advisor also asked them to see whether each of the AWC working in private houses have washrooms as per the required specifications. He stressed to ensure that each of such private house makes it available to children forthwith.The Advisor also sought status of court cases, conduct of DPCs, and implementation of different centrally sponsored schemes by the department.The Advisor was informed that the department is going to organize the month long ‘Poshan Mah’ from the next month. It was said that several awareness activities have been included in its calendar for the benefit of both mother and child.It was given that under Poshan Abhiyaan, a flagship scheme of GoI around 27642 smart phones were distributed among the Aanganwadi Workers to culminate certain online tasks and surveys. It was further given that under this Abhiyaan more than 100000 community based events were organized till July this year and 31575 Village Health Sanitation and Nutrition Days celebrated.The meeting was also informed that around 500 tablets and 256 Aadhar kits have been purchased to perform Aadhar enrollment through ICDS. Moreover 361 AWWs have been trained as Aadhar operators to implement the scheme successfully.It was further revealed that the main objective of the scheme is actually to improve the nutritional and health status of children in the age-group of 0-6 years. Other objectives include reducing the incidence of mortality, morbidity, malnutrition and school dropouts among children.
