By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, January 14, 2018: The Centre has sanctioned Rs 100 crore to Odisha under National Nutrition Mission (NNM) for nutritional development of children.

The newborns, pregnant women and lactating mothers in 11 districts will be included under the NNM, officials said. The districts are Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar, Sambalpur, Bargarh, Balangir, Boudh, Sonepur, Rayagada, Koraput, Malkangiri and Nabarangpur.

The cabinet headed by prime minister Narendra Modi in December had approved the setting up of a National Nutrition Mission (NNM) with a three-year budget of Rs 9,046.17 crore, to rein in malnourishment and stunted growth.

Under the mission, the government is targeting a reduction of 2% a year in stunting, under nutrition and low birth weight among 100 million people. It aims to reduce anemia among young children, women and adolescent girls by 3% a year. The programme would be undertaken in a phased manner, covering 315 districts in 2017-18, 235 districts in 2018-19 and the remaining districts in 2019-20.

NNM primarily will address three aspects—the food that should be given to rein in stunting, undernourishment, low birth weight and anemia; the delivery system required for it; and monitoring of the entire process.

The union ministry of women and child development has sanctioned Rs 33.30 crore to Odisha in 2017-18 for nutrional development of children.

Meanwhile, the ministry has asked the state government to prepare a blue print for implementation of the scheme.