By IANS,
Bhopal : A day after Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan met Thai nutrition expert Kraisid Tontisirin, he instructed officials to prepare an action plan to combat malnutrition on the model developed by Thailand, officials said Wednesday.
On Tuesday Chouhan had met Tontisirin, a nutrition expert and member of the policy board of The Thailand Research Fund.
Others present were the health advisor of Department For International Development (DFID) India Anne Philpott, nutrition policy advisor Shashi Prabha Gupta, nutrition expert Farheen Khurshid and principal secretary of the Department of Women and Child Development (DWCD) Tinu Joshi.
The DFID is supporting a nutrition and health programme of the Madhya Pradesh government. The 60 million pound support is for duration of five years ending in 2012.
Tontisirin’s visit was part of the DFID’s technical support to the state government.
Earlier Monday, Tontisirin also visited anganwaadi (mother and child) centres in various blocks of Vidisha district.
Describing malnutrition as a challenge for the state government, Chouhan reiterated his commitment towards women and child development in the state while giving details of various programmes of the state government to the delegation.
The chief minister also told the delegation about ‘Project Shaktiman’ that has been launched in 40 malnutrition hit tribal clusters of the state.
Tontisirin shared his experiences about successfully combating malnutrition in Thailand in the 1980s when the situation of the country was almost similar to Madhya Pradesh.
Thailand had then reduced malnutrition from 50 percent to 25 percent within a decade and a half. The expert also held discussions with officials of various related departments including DWCD, health, rural development, agriculture and others in a joint meeting.