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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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
