Gujarat Mukhyamantri Matru Shakti Yojana 2024-2025 for Pregnant Women & Lactating Mothers | મુખ્યમંત્રી માતૃશક્તિ યોજના in Gujarat Budget 2024-25

Good news for pregnant women and lactating mothers, મુખ્યમંત્રી માતૃશક્તિ યોજના શુભારંભ. Gujarat government started Mukhyamantri Matru Shakti Yojana 2024-2025 for providing nutritional support to pregnant women and lactating mothers. Read this article till the end to know details of Mukhyamantri Matrushakti Yojana. 

Mukhyamantri Matru Shakti Yojana in Gujarat Budget 2024-25

Finance Minister presented Gujarat Budget 2024-25 on 2 February 2024 in which he said "Each year approximately 12 lakh children are born in the state. It is the priority of the state government that pregnant and lactating mothers receive nutritious food and remain healthy. In 2022–23, I had announced the Mukhya Mantri Matru Shakti Yojana in the budget which provided for rations to mothers for 1000 days. Under the scheme more than five lakh women are being provided additional rations at the cost of approximately ₹300 crore".

FM added that the state govt. has made a provision of Rs. 322 crore for Mukhya Mantri Matru Shakti Yojana, under which two Kg. gram, one Kg. toor dal and one litre edible oil are given per month per beneficiary for one thousand days to every pregnant and lactating woman.

FM also said "To further strengthen nutrition and consequently, the health of pregnant and lactating mothers, I hereby propose the Namo Shri Scheme. Under this scheme, pregnant women belonging to 11 categories including SC, ST, NFSA and PM-JAY beneficiaries will be provided assistance of ₹12,000. For this purpose, I propose a provision of ₹750 crore in the budget for the year 2024-25".

Mukhyamantri Matrushakti Yojana in Gujarat Budget 2023-24

Finance Minister presented Gujarat Budget 2023-24 on 24 February 2023 in which he said "Every pregnant mother beneficiary is provided 2 kg gram, 1 kg tuar dal, and 1 liter groundnut oil every month for 1000 days under Mukhyamantri Matrushakti Yojana (MMY). For this, a provision of Rs. 214 crore. A provision Rs. 133 Crore under The Poshan Kshudha Yojana has been put into implementation to strengthen the nutritional level of pregnant and lactating mothers in tribal areas".

મુખ્યમંત્રી માતૃશક્તિ યોજના શુભારંભ

વડાપ્રધાનશ્રીએ સગર્ભા મહિલાઓના પોષણની કાળજી માટે રાજ્ય સરકારની ₹811 કરોડના ખર્ચે અમલમાં મૂકવામાં આવેલ મુખ્યમંત્રી માતૃશક્તિ યોજના અને રાજ્યના 14 આદિજાતિ વિસ્તારોમાં પોષણ સુધા યોજનાનો શુભારંભ કરાવ્યો તેમજ આ યોજનાના લાભાર્થીઓને પોષણ કિટનું વિતરણ કર્યું હતું.

વડાપ્રધાનશ્રી નરેન્દ્ર મોદીએ મુખ્યમંત્રીશ્રી ભુપેન્દ્ર પટેલની ઉપસ્થિતિમાં વડોદરા ખાતે ગુજરાત_ગૌરવ_અભિયાન કાર્યક્રમમાં રેલવેના ₹16,369 કરોડના 18 પ્રોજેક્ટ સહિત મધ્ય ગુજરાતના પાંચ જિલ્લામાં વિવિધ વિભાગોના કુલ ₹21,000 કરોડના વિકાસ પ્રકલ્પોનું લોકાર્પણ-ખાતમુહૂર્ત-ભૂમિપૂજન કર્યું.

આજના ગુજરાત_ગૌરવ_અભિયાન અવસરે 1.41 લાખ ગરીબ પરિવારોને ઘરના ઘરનું સપનું સાકાર થયું હતું અને વડાપ્રધાનશ્રી નરેન્દ્ર મોદીના વરદ હસ્તે પ્રધાનમંત્રી આવાસ યોજનાના આ લાભાર્થીઓને તેમના ઘરની ચાવીઓ પ્રતીકાત્મક સ્વરૂપે અર્પણ કરવામાં આવી હતી.

Gujarat Mukhyamantri Matru Shakti Yojana Features 

PRIME MINISTER Narendra Modi on 18 June 2022 launched two flagship programmes of the Gujarat government under its Integrated Child Development Services in Vadodara. First schemes is Poshan Sudha Yojana which is focused on rolling out additional nutrition to pregnant women and lactating mothers. 

Second scheme is Mukhyamantri Matrushakti Yojana, which will cover 7 lakh women, is Gujarat government’s first scheme aimed at dealing with dietary deficiency within the first 1,000 days of the conception of a child (from pregnancy to 2 years), considered the crucial first window to check malnutrition. The scheme will entail distribution of 2 kg chickpeas, 1 kg toor daal and 1 litre fortified ground nut oil.

“The entire Mukhyamantri Matru Shakti Yojana will be electronically monitored. Packets will have bar codes which will be scanned and the scheme is OTP based. This means the Gujarat Matrishakti Yojana beneficiary will receive OTPs confirming that they have received these packages, so that we know that the intended beneficiary is actually receiving the ration,” said Avantika Darji, Joint Director, ICDS.

Need for Mukhyamantri Matrushakti Yojana in Gujarat

The announcement of the roll-out of Mukyamantri Matrushakti Yojana comes ahead of the Assembly elections in Gujarat, and less than a month after the latest National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 5 data showed that 89% children across the country in the 6-23 month age group do not receive minimum acceptable diet.

The minimum acceptable diet is a composite of two main things - breastfeeding and its frequency up to two years, and dietary diversity. A child needs at least 4 out of 7 food groups indicated by the WHO everyday to have a minimum acceptable diet. Only 25% children receive this dietary diversity while 35% children receive adequate milk frequency, say experts adding that this is the indicator in the NFHS that is the most direct indicator of child malnutrition.

Incidentally, Gujarat features at the bottom of the pile in NFHS 5, along with Uttar Pradesh, with the lowest adequate diets for children between 6-23 months at 5.9% each. One of the biggest impacts of deficient diet in the first 1,000 days are huge reparations on cognitive ability, including sensory and language capabilities.

"Key cognitive development takes place at this stage, affecting the child’s IQ later on and cognitive development, with 80% brain growth taking place by 2 years. If children don’t get adequate diet, there is growth faltering and height is affected as well, said a senior official of the WCD Ministry, which rolls out the Poshan Abhiyan.

Ministry officials, however, said that the NFHS may not reflect the true picture on the ground. “The NFHS data is based on a much smaller sample of 6 lakh households. We have collated data of 1.8 crore children registered through our Poshan Tracker. This data has shown that malnutrition is actually 7%. NFHS shows this data at 19%,” said a senior ministry official.

WCD Minister Smriti Irani, in the last Parliament session, informed Rajya Sabha that according to the tracker 7% children in the country are malnourished, while 2% suffer from severe malnutrition. The ministry is now getting its Poshan Tracker data re-evaluated by the World Bank. “We want our data validated at least thrice before releasing it next year. The World Bank is carrying out the first third party evaluation of the Poshan Tracker data currently,” said a senior official.

Poshan Sudha Yojana 2024-25 Implementation

Apart from Mukhyamantri Matru Shakti Yojana, the Gujarat govt. is also implementing the Poshan Sudha Yojana. Under Posan Sudha Yojana, hot cooked meals will be provided to tribal women once a day at Anganwadi centres. A provision of Rs. 129 crore for Poshan Sudha Yojana has been made in Gujarat Budget 2024-25 to provide fresh meal to pregnant and lactating mothers in 106 tribal blocks.

Under Poshan Sudha scheme, pregnant women and lactating mothers registered at Anganwadi are provided a full nutritious meal. In addition, iron and calcium tablets as well as education on health and nutrition are also offered.