Tamil Nadu Health Minister Ma. Subramanian on Saturday launched the ‘First 1000 – Best Healthy Days’ programme that aims at monitoring the nutrition of pregnant women and newborns for the first 1,000 days.
Accompanied by Minister for Handlooms and Textiles R. Gandhi, Mr. Subramanian inaugurated the scheme at the Primary Health Centre in Thimiri block near Arcot by providing financial assistance to 101 pregnant women. “The scheme aims to ensure normal weight for pregnant women and adequate nutrition for newborns upto two years,” Mr. Subramanian.
Funded under the State Balanced Growth Fund of the State Planning Commission, the Health Minister said that the scheme was being executed by the Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at a cost of ₹38.20 crore for 2022-2024. Under the initiative, the scheme is being implemented in all the 23 Community Health Centers and 116 Primary Health Centres of 14 districts based on the poor maternal and child health indicators in the State, covering around 37,200 newborns in a year in Tamil Nadu. In two years, 74,400 infants will be covered under the initiative, he said.
Further he said that the scheme would help to reduce Maternal Mortality Ratio and Infant Mortality Rate. It will also control anaemia among antenatal mothers and help in treatment and reduction of low birth weight among newborns. It will also help bring general improvement in the immunisation status of the newborns.
The beneficiaries include all the children born in two years — they will be given adequate antenatal care, good nutrition during pregnancy and lactation, early childhood development and aided to have normal weight gain upto two years. The beneficiaries will be monitored on block, district and state level, the Health Minister said.
On the occasion, Ranipet Collector S. Valarmathi, D. Manimaran, DDHS (Ranipet) and J. L. Eswarappan, Arcot MLA, were present on the occasion.
