Mangaluru, (The Hindu): The turnout of pregnant women and lactating mothers was poor on the inaugural day of the Matru Poorna Yojane in several anganwadis in Dakshina Kannada on Monday.

The scheme entails the provision of hot, nutritious meals to pregnant women and lactating mothers every day at the anganwadis. The food distribution starts from the date the pregnant woman registers her name at the anganwadi and goes on for six months from date the woman gives birth to a child.

With this scheme, the earlier arrangement of giving 3kg of rice, wheat and other nutritious items every month to the house of these women has been stopped.

The attendance of the women at anganwadis was poor on the first day, despite prior intimation of the programme to each of the 29,000 beneficiaries in the district.

Of the 250 beneficiaries invited to an anganwadi in Narikombu village in Bantwal taluk for the district-level launch of the programme, only 32 turned up. Of the 22 beneficiaries invited to the anganwadi in Attavar for the Mangaluru taluk-level launch, only six turned up. Similar was the response in other anganwadis at Kavoor, Kuloor, Shaktinagar and Mahakalipadpu in the city.

Difficult for new mothers

“How can you expect a woman who has given birth to a child to come all the way to an anganwadi,” questioned Mumtaz, a resident of Attavar, referring to condition of her niece Shehenaz, who had given birth 40 days ago. Ms. Mumtaz said Shehnaz has been suffering complications following a caesarean procedure. Stressing that family members were taking great care of Shehnaz, Ms. Mumtaz said they were not interested in the scheme.

Openly expressing his anguish against the scheme, a resident of Attavar told J.R. Lobo, MLA, Mangaluru City South, at the Attavar anganwadi that anganwadis across the district were too small to handle pregnant and lactating women. “How do you expect women to come eat at anganwadis where is no space for them to sit. It’s a difficult ask for anganwadi workers to take care of the children and also of these women,” the resident said.

Agreeing with the concerns raised by the resident, Mr. Lobo said the scheme was devised for the better health of the woman and the child. “There will be teething problems for every scheme. The government cannot address all the issues. People should come forward to help the government in implementing the scheme,” he said.

Mr. Lobo lauded selfless service of anganwadi teachers and helpers in the implementation of the scheme.