"Handheld devices are now available to 1.2 million Anganvadis across country": Smriti Irani

New Delhi [India], February 29 : Union Minister of Women and Child Development of India, Smriti Irani on Thursday thanked Microsoft Co-founder Bill Gates for his continued support to the Prime Minister's flagship scheme- 'Poshan Abhiyaan'.
Smriti Irani also pointed out that handheld devices now are available to 1.2 million Anganvadis across the country.
"It's only in India that Bill Gates can go from making 'Khichdi' to eating it to meeting somebody who makes tea to a chaiwala who became the Prime Minister to then coming to an evening and launching a cartoon coalition (use of cartoon characters to spread the message on nutrition). Bill Gates, I am grateful for your generosity and continued support to the Prime Minister's flagship scheme 'Poshan Abhiyaan', she said.
Microsoft Co-founder Bill Gates and Union Minister Smriti Irani attended the 'Poshan Utsav - Celebrating Nutrition' event, in Delhi today.
"When the Prime Minister renounced this scheme in 2018, Nutrition as a national effort has been undertaken since the 1970s. However, when PM Modi took office for the first time in the history of our country, 18 ministries across the government of India were brought together under the national flagship scheme called 'Potion', and why so because the PM believes in collaboration along with cooperative federalism was one of his governance agendas," she added.
Further, the Union Minister pointed out that in 2018, when the programme started, PM Modi was essentially of the opinion that Nutrition can't be the responsibility of one division, one desk and one department.
"From the 1970s to 2018, there was no budgetary allowance for safe drinking water and sanitation within our Anganwadi systems. For the first time, there was a call to action to ensure every Anganvadi is digitally enabled so that the transfer of data, and service delivery to the last mile can be tracked. Nobody ever imagined that the Anganvadi didi who would take one register from one house to another would be digitally equipped enough to not just put data in a technical device but also compute that data and then inform herself better to engage with a beneficiary to a productive end," Smriti Irani said.
She also emphasized that handheld devices now are available to 1.2 million Anganvadis across the country.
"Every month Anganvadi Didis measure 75 million children under the age of six as per WHO standards across the country. All of them are aware of the Potion tracker but nobody among them is aware to who helped us in getting it done. Today not only do we celebrate the fact that a hundred million beneficiaries are receiving their monthly support through the potion tracker but it has also managed to do is to inform us better about the nutritional status of children and lactating mothers in our country," Irani added.
Smriti Irani thanked the Bill Gates Foundation for supporting Indian Intellectual capacities.
"On issues of Gender and nutrition, we have time and again in India seen that most of the discourse is informed by foreign academia. Your Foundation in India supported Indian intellectual capacities is what we also celebrate today through potion utsav. When it comes to research about climate change and its impact on women and children, the Gates Foundation has partnered productively with the Ministry of women and Child Development to ensure that not only does the foundation reach out and encourage advocacy and communication on nutrition but also support institutions that are home bond and meet global standards," she said.