21,000 low birth-weight babies identified in 3 states: Maneka Gandhi
New Delhi, Mar 1: As many as 21,000 low birth-weight babies have been identified in Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh, who were born between October 2017 and October 2018, Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi said Friday.
Gandhi said her ministry has been closely monitoring these babies and the weight of 15,000 of them have been brought to normal level.
Newborns weighing less than 2,500 grams are considered low birth-weight (LBW) babies.
"The weighing efficiency of 68 per cent of these 21,000 low birth babies have improved," she said while talking to reporters.
The low birth-weight babies were identified in the three states by an independent agency and ministry officials said they aim to cover the entire country by April.
Taking the national nutrition mission forward, Gandhi said her ministry will celebrate the first anniversary of 'Poshan Abhiyan' by organising 'Poshan Pakhwada' across the country from March 8 to 22.
The 'Pakhwada' will be launched on the International Women's Day and the WCD Ministry would be the nodal agency for it.
"Our aim is to reach 25 crore people with a special focus on anaemia in women and we want to target one crore anaemic women and give them treatment," she said.
WCD Secretary Rakesh Srivastava said a convergence of 15 ministries would be seen and the government would try to reach to grass-root level through Gram Sabhas, self-help groups and field functionaries.
A senior WCD official said except West Bengal and Odisha, active participation has been seen in rest of the states in 'Poshan Abhiyan', which aims to fight malnourishment and stunting.
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US VP JD Vance says Lebanon not part of ceasefire, calls it ‘misunderstanding’
Budapest/Washington: US Vice President J D Vance has said that Lebanon was never included in the ceasefire understanding with Iran, describing the confusion as a “legitimate misunderstanding”.
Speaking to reporters before departing from Hungary, Vance said, “I think the Iranians thought that the ceasefire included Lebanon and it just didn’t. We never made that promise.”
He stressed that the United States had not included Lebanon in the scope of the ceasefire at any stage.
His remarks come amid continued Israeli strikes in Lebanon, where more than 200 people were reported killed, even as ceasefire talks between Iran and the US move forward.
Vance said Israel had “offered … to check themselves a little bit in Lebanon because they want to make sure that our negotiation is successful”.
He warned that if Iran allows the situation in Lebanon to affect the negotiations, it could derail the talks.
“If Iran wants to let this negotiation fall apart in a conflict where they were getting hammered over Lebanon, which has nothing to do with them and which the United States never once said was part of the ceasefire, that’s ultimately their choice,” he said.
