Maneka Gandhi launches IAP HealthPhone programme

Union Minister of Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi launched the Indian Academy of Pediatrics (IAP) HealthPhone programme in Delhi on Tuesday.

The programme is the world's largest digital mass education programme for addressing malnutrition in women and children.

This programme has been launched by the Indian Academy of Pediatrics (IAP) in partnership with the Ministry of Women and Child Development, UNICEF and supported by Vodafone India.

This programme aims to tackle the challenge of malnutrition in mothers and children across India.

Speaking at the launch of the programme, Maneka said that it is an innovative initiative that will reach out to the masses specially the rural females.

She said that the idea of paying an incentive for watching these videos is really unique and encouraging.

Maneka hoped that it will make a difference in generating awareness about the issues related to health and malnutrition at a large scale.

She also said that the problem of malnutrition in India is a well-known fact and the Government has been taking various steps to address this through a number of programmes. Malnutrition is partly an issue of lack of means of nutrition and partly lack of knowledge about proper method of nutrition.

The Ministry of Women and Child Development through its ICDS programme has been providing supplementary nutrition to the pregnant and lactating mothers as well as children up to the age of six years.