Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Breast feed newborn for healthy development, says Minister

The Pioneer, Aug 1, 2007

Minister for Woman and Child Development Kusum Mehdele has urged the expectant mothers on the occasion of World Breast Feeding Week, which began on Tuesday, to breast feed their newborn within an hour of their birth for their all round development. She said that mothers' milk during the first few days helps increase immunity and promotes growth of the child.

It may be mentioned that several programmes are being organised by the Woman and Child Development Department in cooperation of UNICEF, CARE and Breast Feeding Promotion Network of India to mark the 16th Breast Feeding Week which is being observed from August 1 to 7 in the State.

A pilot project prepared by the department is being implemented in 30 hospitals of Bhopal during the World Breast Feeding Week. Under the project, 46 college girl students and 14 supervisors of the department would highlight the importance of breast feeding within an hour after the delivery to the expectant mothers and would encourage its practise. Director WCD Kalpana Shrivastava throwing light on the project said that such campaign would be launched in all the districts of the State on the basis of its success. She further stated that the women will have to accept the breast feeding as the most important foundation step for the child development.

Breast Feeding Promotion Network of India State coordinator Dr Sheela Bhambal mentioned that the milk secreted by mothers during the first few days, which is called colostrum transmits life to the baby. This initiative could control infant mortality rate to a greater extent. State representative UNICEF Hamid El Bashir said that the first three years after the birth are critical in the development of the child and during this period various capabilities are largely determined in the child.

Monday, July 30, 2007

Cast away: No takers for these Dalit snake charmers

Suchandana Gupta,Times of India, July 29, 2007

HOSHANGABAD: While most other boys his age jump at the sight of a cat, six-year-old Khemchand Sapera helps his dad catch poisonous snakes. Too young and feeble to lift a python, Khemchand can, however, give a free demonstration of how to catch a live cobra. You would think he's a local hero, idolised by neighbourhood boys. On the contrary, Khemchand is shooed away by them as they cry out calling him an "untouchable".

If you thought untouchability has lost its grip, here's a reality check — it's being practised, and not by the upper castes only.

Just 20 metres from National Highway 12 and 170 km from Bhopal near Rani Pipariya village in Hoshangabad district resides a community of snake charmers. Considered one of the lowest among Dalits, even other sects of the Dalit community do not mix with them. "We cannot even reside in the main village and have to live at least 200 metres away from rest of the society," said Mallunath Sapera, an elderly member of the community.

"Although they might be pushed to one corner, other Dalit communities are permitted to at least live inside the villages. But no one will accept us. The Kathiars, Charmkars and Meras are also scheduled castes, but they don't touch us. At weddings, we sit to eat with animals. As for the upper castes, we go stand in front of their houses during Nag Panchmi festival and they throw us a rupee or two. We still cannot enter the temples, our children cannot go to school and politically we have no power since we are less in numbers," said Mallunath.

Hoshangabad district has only 1,200 members of the Sapera community, while Madhya Pradesh has less than 25,000 families. Every successive government in the state has formulated policies and spent thousands of crores for the uplift of the Dalit community, but nothing seems to have reached this group.

In January 2002, the then Digvijay Singh-led Congress government had announced its Dalit agenda and claimed to distribute thousands of acres of government land among Dalits — nothing reached the Saperas of Rani Pipariya.

The successive Uma Bharati government promised a new Dalit policy and the current Shivraj Singh Chauhan administration called a Dalit panchayat in the CM's official residence. But life has hardly changed for Khemchand and his brother Tulsiram (5), who still go with their father to catch snakes in the morning because other students refuse to study with them and there is nothing else they can do.

An average Sapera family in Rani Pipariya earns about Rs 35-50 a day. Though they have BPL cards, they don't have the Rs 120 required to fetch the rations. Snake charming, their only source of livelihood, is also under "threat". "The forest department takes away our snakes and puts us behind bars. They say catching snakes is a crime. But how do we live? We have no other means of livelihood. No one even stepped into our village till six years ago when our names were included for the first time in the electoral list," said Chandabai, mother of eight children.

Fearing the police and forest departments, Chandabai sends her children with the snakes to the villages. "The police don't lock-up children. So we depend mostly on our children to do the earning

Friday, July 27, 2007

Breastfeeding best start to child's life

Bhopal, July 27: Dr Hamid El Bashir, State Representative UNICEF Office for Madhya Pradesh while participating at the training workshop for young volunteers in Bhopal said that early initiation of breastfeeding and exclusive breastfeeding till six months gives a child a best start in the life. It helps increase immunity within the child and benefits the development of the brain of the child, and child will grow better in the later years. He was speaking at the workshop organized for orienting and training young post graduate and graduate students of nutrition from Sarojini Naidu Girls College. He congratulated the young volunteers for their commitment to voluntarism. More than sixty volunteers were participating in this one day workshop which was organized by Women and Child Development department, Breastfeeding Promotion Network of India and UNICEF. These volunteers would help support raising awareness on the issue at various institutions.

Dr Sheela Bhambal, State Coordinator, Breastfeeding Promotion network of India, Madhya Pradesh chapter made a presentation on the key messages for optimal breastfeeding, early initiation of the breastfeeding and spoke on the answers to the common problems encountered during breastfeeding by women. She spoke on the importance of colostrums, the mothers' first breastfeed and early initiation. Dr. Manjula Vishwas, Head of the department of Home Sciences from Sarojini Naidu College spoke to the participants about dangers of feeding prelacteals to the new born.

Suresh Tomar, District Programme Officer Women and Child Development department, Bhopal welcomed the participants and explained about the purpose of the workshop. Dr. Vandana Agarwal, Nutrition Specialist, UNICEF Bhopal motivated the participants to contribute during the world breast feeding week by creating awareness at the delivery institutions and later on they can be ambassadors for taking this vital information within communities. Dr Ohri Chief Medical and Health Officer Bhopal complemented the effort and assured the support from the health departments and hospitals. Honey Jhalani, National trainer for Infant and Young Child Feeding practices, explained about the significance of the colostrum feeding, its benefits, correct positioning and attachment between mother and the child while breastfeeding. Nisha Jain, Women and Child Development department spoke on the factors which influence early initiation of breastfeeding and how communication and its effective use can help overcome many myths associated with it.

Thursday, July 5, 2007

MP to increase enrolment in schools

Lalit Shastri, The Hindu, July 5, 2007

Free textbooks for all children, uniforms to girl students being offered

JHABUA (MADHYA PRADESH): With the reopening of schools for the new academic year, efforts are being made by the Madhya Pradesh Government to ensure maximum enrolment of children in schools.

Travelling through the tribal district of Jhabua, bordering Gujarat, this correspondent could notice that special efforts were needed on a large scale to address issues like poor quality of education, lack of trained teachers and academic support as well as the problem of migrating families, which was making it difficult to retain a large number of children in schools.

The Madhya Pradesh Government’s Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is aimed at improving the quality of education in schools through free distribution of textbooks for all children, provision of school uniforms to girl students and scholarships to children belonging to the disadvantaged and deprived sections, training of parent-teacher associations (PTAs) and improvement in the existing school infrastructure and by providing improved drinking water and toilet facilities.

To meet the larger objectives of primary education, a quality education initiative is presently being implemented in Madhya Pradesh. In Jhabua, UNICEF supports quality education in two clusters of 10 to 15 schools in each block in partnership with the district administration and Rajya Shiksha Kendra. Besides advocating the need for quality education, UNICEF has also provided school furniture and a mathematics kit, which includes self-learning material, for schools in this district.

Hamid El Bashir, State Representative at the UNICEF office for Madhya Pradesh, said that in villages there has been great progress in areas of elementary and primary education.

Especially in tribal areas, he said, enrolment has increased substantially. “We need to invest more on quality education and in efforts to retain the children of migrating parents in schools,” said Dr. Bashir, adding that UNICEF has agreed in principle to support mobile schools for the sake of children of migrating parents.

Dr. Bashir said that the State Government was doing good work but more efforts were needed. “We are working with the Government for teachers’ training and are also ready to join hands to motivate families to enrol girls in schools.”

While supporting activity-based teachers’ training and development of PTA training module and monitoring tools based on classroom observation, UNICEF plans to train cluster academic coordinators to monitor classroom activities.