Latest news with #WomenandChildDevelopmentdepartment
The Hindu
7 days ago
- Health
- The Hindu
Biryani makes it to revised anganwadi menu
A child's innocent preference for biryani and chicken fry instead of upma has culminated in the revision of the anganwadi menu in the State. Just months after the video of young Trijal S. Sundhar, also known as Sanku, went viral on social media, prompting Minister for Health and Women and Child Development Veena George to promise a relook at the anganwadi menu, the 'model food menu' for anganwadi children was unveiled by the Minister at the inauguration of the State-level anganwadi Praveshanolsavam in Pathanamthitta on Tuesday. The new menu brought out by the Women and Child Development department promises more delicious fare that meets nutritional requirements and is protein and energy rich, while reducing sugar and salt intake. This is the first time that a uniform menu is being rolled out across anganwadis in the State. The revised menu covers breakfast, lunch, and general feeding and includes egg biryani and egg/veg pulao to ragi ada, soya dry curry, sprouts, raita, fruit cup, nutri laddu and 'parippu payasam' on different days. Milk and eggs that were provided two days a week will now be given three times a week. The menu also specifies the ingredients that go into a dish and their quantity and their nutritional values. After Sanku's mother had posted her son's video on her Instagram handle, the Minister too had shared it. She had later agreed that the anganwadi menu needed an upgrade and had to look appealing to children.
Indian Express
23-04-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
Govt launches portal for registration of pre-schools; move to regulate them
The Maharashtra government on Tuesday launched a portal where pre-schools, which are largely operated by private players, can register themselves with the government. The move is aimed at maintaining a consolidated information on various types of pre-schools active across state. This registration process will require pre-schools to provide details such as its name, address, enrolment figures, number of teachers and support staff and details on infrastructure among others. Even as this registration will be voluntary for the time being, considering that a dedicated Act to govern pre-primary schools is underway in Maharashtra, academicians said that launch of this portal — — is a significant move towards regulation for pre-schools, which is a largely unregulated sector. As per the information shared by Maharashtra's school education department, school education until now began from Class 1, where children are admitted after completing 6 years of age. The pre-school section – which includes classes nursery and kindergarten (junior as well as senior) and catered to children in the age-group of 3 to 6 years – remained out of the mainstream education, until now. 'However the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 has brought Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) under mainstream education and with Maharashtra rolling out NEP implementation for school education, pre-schools too will be brought under mainstream education,' said an official from the school education department while highlighting that this information will help government is making of the proposed Act to regulate pre-schools. State's school education department currently has information about anganwadis and balwadis which are run by the Women and Child Development department of the state government. 'But there is no regulation over privately run pre-schools, which are large in number. Thus this facility of registering information about privately run pre-primary classes is now being provided by the school education department,' read the statement issued by the school education department declaring launch of the portal. Apart from effective implementation of NEP, according to the school education department, this portal will be useful for citizens to know about pre-schools in their area. 'Furthermore, this information will be used to determine the policy for pre-primary schools. It will also help the government to improve the capacity of the staff working for pre-primary,' read the statement.
