The ‘1000 Days for Every Child’ project wants to ensure that every baby born gets the undivided attention of the parents for the first three years of their life.
“The government will do anything to ensure the child gets this right and we are now mulling even going to the extent of withholding the birth certificate if a mother gives birth to another child before she can give the 1,000 days to the previous born,” Health Minister Ampareen said at a media orientation program here today.
She said that the health and nutrition of children in the first phase of their lives are crucial to their future well-being, even as she emphasized the importance of vaccination and immunization programmes of the government which needed to be diligently followed up.
The program was organized by Centre for Development and Peace Studies, Guwahati, in collaboration with UNICEF for media professionals in the state. The focus was on the critical issues of child health and immunization in the state.
She said the government is now thinking of incentivising the 1,000 days so that parents are encouraged to consider the concept of spacing. This is to ensure that children in a family are not neglected as is the case in many families in the state, particularly in the rural areas.
She said that the government has many plans to ensure that every child is vaccinated so that they are safe from avoidable childhood illnesses.
The government will introduce Health and Wellness Centres over and above the normal health centres, she said. The efforts of the government have ensured that the Infant Mortality Rate has come down and will continue to work to get the IMR to zero.
