27-06-2025
Stronger action against malnutrition, child marriage proposed in Dakshina Kannada
Expressing concern over sluggish progress in nutritional and child welfare programmes, Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat CEO Dr K Anand has directed officials to urgently strengthen initiatives under the Women and Child Development Department.
Chairing a district-level coordination meeting on Thursday, Dr Anand noted that the district lags behind others in implementing the Supplementary Nutrition Programme (SNP) and called for immediate improvement in service delivery. He asked Child Development Project Officers (CDPOs) to ensure that malnourished children—20 identified as severely undernourished—are admitted without delay to Nutrition Rehabilitation Centres (NRCs), with due care to hygiene and nutrition.
'Our goal should be to make Dakshina Kannada a malnutrition-free district,' he asserted. Dr Anand also stressed the need to ensure pre-primary education for children aged 3 to 5 and suggested using women's groups and gram sabhas to identify and enrol out-of-school children.
On the infrastructure front, officials from the Karnataka State Habitat Centre were instructed to expedite Anganwadi building repairs. CDPOs were told to monitor and regularly inspect ongoing works. Two cases of child marriage were reported in the district in the latter half of 2024. Dr Anand urged gram panchayats to hold vigilance meetings to address child marriage and teenage pregnancies, directing that any suspected case be reported to Childline (1098). He also called for awareness drives across community platforms.
Highlighting the 13 dowry-related harassment cases recorded in the same period, Dr Anand asked for legal literacy campaigns in mothers' groups, Stree Shakti meetings, and Child Protection Committee sessions.
He also recommended urgent repair of the District Bal Bhavan building.
