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Under fire for blaming malnutrition in women in the state on them being “beauty-conscious”, Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday launched “Mission Balam Sukham” to address the issue of malnutrition among children and women in the state.
Modi announced the mission at a mega convention of sarpanchs held at Mahatma Mandir in Gandhinagar to mark 50 years of Panchayati Raj and his completion of 4,000 days in power.
Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj, was to join Modi, but she did not turn up apparently because of ill-health . She sent a birthday wish, which was read out, “I was quite willing to come for the event but could not because doctors have not permitted to travel. However, I wish you all the best on your birthday and congratulate you for completing 4,000 days in the government.”
Modi urged the 14,000-odd sarpanchs from 18,000 villages to fight malnutrition in their villages and announced a special discretionary grant of Rs 10,000 per annum. The state government will also give special grant to each village in proportion of the number of malnourished children and Rs 60 crore has been set aside in the current budget for the new nutrition mission, the CM said.
Villages which would report no crimes except road accidents in the village periphery in five years would be designated as “tirth grams”, Modi said. The CM also talked of the success of Jyotigam mission that he said has ensured uninterrupted power in villages.
In capital, village heads hail CM
Gulam Mohammad Momin, the sarpanch of Kishorepura village in Mehsana district who was given an award, hailed Chief Minister Narendra Modi as a “revolutionary” man under whose rule “not only Muslims but people from all religions have prospered”.
Momin was one of the three village heads out of the 14,000-odd present at the function at Mahatma Mandir who were given an opportunity to speak about their villages that have received various state and national-level awards.
Another sarpanch, Bhagwatiben Patel from Anandupra village in Mehsana district, hailed her village and the state government for helping her achieve her targets.
Himanshu Patel, the sarpanch of Punsari village in Sabarkantha district that has received various awards for having WI-FI connections, CCTV cameras and other modern facilities, also spoke at length about how the village achieved new heights under Modi’s chief ministership.
Baliben Bharwad, the sarpanch of Kolapur village in Palanpur district, was dressed in her colourful pastorlist attire. She seemed a bit lost at the entrance of swanky Mahatma Mandir as she desperately looked for water to drink.
Sudhaben Arvindji of Vishnupra village in Mehsana district had a tough time as her two-month-old son Darshan would not let her sit quietly and listen to what the awardee village heads had to say.
Sudhaben was seen nodding in agreement when Modi said in his speech that the convention was not being held for political gains. “Such programmes do help women in understanding the world outside the village but when it comes to voting, the village gets divided into two — Congress and the BJP,” she said.
The english media atleas has shown pathetic ignorance about Mr Modi's earlier interview where he clearly had expressed concern about nutritional status of some sections in Gujarat. However the media in its ignorance or mischief chose to distort it with selective selective highlight. Even in the current article instead of highlighting the value of Mr Modi's initiative it has shown total ignorance about the issue and missed an opportunity to inform the people about basic health issues plaguing the WHOLE nation. It should not surprise why the awareness and education in India can be harder than other countries. Media needs to go back to school or perhaps idiotic authors of such articles should be sacked or retrained.
sir, it is very surprising that even on serious issues media reports are biased. om malnutrition cm modi has given his views. if you disagree with his views than you give your point of view as to why middle class Gujarati girls-women suffer from malnutrition. middle class people, any where in India, suffering from malnutrition is itself a big news. in place of following that lead the media is trying to trivialize a sensitive and serious issue. i fail to understand how prominent national dailies and TV channels form their views and what do they think about their readers and viewers.
Even in the interview Modi was clearly mentioning that his Govt has a plan to fight the malnutrion in Gujarat. So no need to be partisan by reporting that he started it after the gaffe. Accepting the fact that the problem exists is the first step towards correcting it and thanks to Modi for doing the acceptance and a plan to correct that.
