Shillong, Mar 31: Meghalaya today launched ‘Mission 1000 Days’ programme, an initiative to enhance nutrition and early childhood development outcomes in the state by mobilizing a collaborative effort between government and society.
The programme was inaugurated during a formal ceremony held at the State Convention Centre by Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma.
The initiative targets a critical period from conception to a child’s second birthday, focusing on reducing stunting, undernutrition, anaemia, and low birth weight.
In his keynote address, Sangma emphasised the importance of this program in ensuring healthier future generations and reiterated his commitment to improving maternal health. He stated, “I hope that there will be a day when not a single mother will have to lose her life while giving or bringing life into this world,” he said.
The state government has allocated ₹127 crore specifically for the programme, which will provide essential nutrition and medical support. The goals of this initiative include the complete eradication of malnutrition and stunting.
Additionally, the chief minister highlighted plans to transform traditional Anganwadi Centres (AWC) into ‘Happiness Centres’, thereby enhancing their role in early childhood development.
Additional Chief Secretary Sampath Kumar highlighted the vision of the programme. He noted that this initiative will unleash the full cognitive and physical potential of every child by focusing interventions in the first 1000 days of a child’s life.
To ensure effective grassroots execution, the program has successfully prepared 750 master trainees, along with a dedicated force of 19,000 frontline cadres across the state. He added that, to further enhance the service delivery, a dedicated ‘Child-App’ has been developed to systematically track the progress of every mother and child.
Kumar noted that this marks Meghalaya as the only state to implement a dedicated ECD mission using a whole of the government and society model, integrating all departments, community organisations and health-workers.
To operationalise the Mission 1000 days, the government unveiled a five-pillar strategy (Build, Empower, Nourish, Celebrate and Rescue) driven by frontline capability and community action. It includes building frontline workers capability on effective breastfeeding skills and nutrition, Mother’s Skill Workshops organised by trained FLWs in association with VOs and VHCs, and linked incentives to mothers for attending. SHGs would also demonstrate nutritious meals preparation to pregnant women in the third trimester. This also provides hot cooked meals with eggs two times a week and leveraging on existing AWC infrastructure to achieve population-level outreach on nutrition and early stimulation.
Additionally, it covers targeted support for children who show persistent growth faltering, providing cash transfers to Village Organizations (VOs) to provide direct support to families in need through nutritious protein-rich meals.
The event also saw the distribution of the specialised Chief Minister’s Mother & Baby Kits and flyers for the Chief Minister’s Headman Fellowship for Early Childhood Development.
Under the Meghalaya Healthcare Advancement Policy-2024, the chief minister also distributed the grants to beneficiaries including hospitals, tertiary health care facilities, including those operated by private entities, trusts, missionaries, NGOs to bolster the state’s health infrastructure.
Dr. Rupal Dalal, MD, IBCLC, FABM (Paediatrician) representing IIT Bombay Team delivered an insightful presentation on the-ground collaboration with Meghalaya, detailing the availability of online videos in Khasi and Garo which can be accessed by parents and the rigorous, hands-on training of local healthcare workers to accurately monitor infant growth.
