According to the CMO, the AMLAN will be carried out by several departments including Health & Family Welfare, School & Mass Education, Women & Child Development, Mission Shakti and ST & SC Development Department.
Terming the mission a giant leap, the Chief Minister said, “It’s our own programme for making the state free from anaemia, especially women and children.”
Launching the programme on virtual platform, the Chief Minister said that the programme will benefit about 1.37 Crore people, which includes pregnant women, lactating mothers, women of reproductive age group, adolescents and children.
The Chief Minister further said that the major interventions are strengthening iron and folic acid supplementation, testing for haemoglobin, treatment of anaemic cases, capacity building of service providers and social behaviour change communication.
He further said that this programme will be rolled out in 55 thousand government and government aided schools and 74 thousand Anganwadi Centres across the State.
Saying that all our endeavours is focussed on the principle of ‘Every life is precious’, he said that the State Government has prioritized for development of the health sector in our state. With intensive focus on public health schemes, Odisha has shown improvement in many health indicators like Immunisation, Infant Mortality Rate, Maternal Mortality Ratio, infant and young child feeding practices, and under-nutrition. However, anaemia remains a major public health challenge across the country, he added.
The Chief Minister urged the concerned departments and on-field service providers to work in a concerted manner for successful implementation of AMLAN for achieving Anaemia Mukta Odisha.
The CM also released the Operational Guidelines for AMLAN.
On his part, Chief Secretary Suresh Chandra Mohapatra said that this programme will definitely succeed with coordinated efforts of all departments. Previously, we have done it in management of Covid-19, he added.
Secretary to CM (5T) Shri VK Pandian moderated the programme.
Health & Family Welfare Secretary Shalini Pandit gave the welcome address and Director Family Welfare offered the vote of thanks.
Principal Secretaries and Secretaries of several departments, officials from all districts joined the program through video conference.