World Food Day
To mark the World Food Day, CUTS CHD, jointly with District Supply Office, Chittorgarh organised a seminar on “Investment in Agriculture for Food Security’’ at the Centre, on October 16, 2006. In his welcome address, J P Bohra, the District Supply Officer, Chittorgarh opined that India is an agricultural country and there is an urgent need for investment in this sector in order to enhance food production. He further said that India needs to focus on both quantity and quality in terms of food production, including protection to the farmers, so that the possibility of greater investment could be realised. He called upon the NABARD to come forward for providing investment in the agriculture sector.
Vijay Kumar Pandey, Deputy Director, Agriculture (Expansion) opined that it is very urgent for the country to be self-sufficient in the area of food production. He voiced his concern over the rising population in recent years vis-à-vis declining food production. He stressed the need for producing those crops that could yield more production in adverse conditions.
Y K Ujjawal, the Regional Manager, National Seeds Corporation, Chittorgarh, called for adequate management of agriculture in order to promote investment and save it from animals and birds, so that the production could be enhanced. Professor, Ratan Lal Khateek, the Assistant Professor Agriculture Science Centre, Chittorgarh while stressing the need for promoting bio fertiliser to raise the soil fertility, said that the fertility of land is declining due to indiscriminate use of chemical fertiliser. He also pointed out that farmers should be paid fair price for their produce.
Mother NGO Programme
CUTS Centre for Human Development (CUTS CHD), Chittorgarh, in close cooperation with the selected Field NGOs (FNGOs) of Chittorgarh has been implementing the Mother NGO (MNGO) programme in remote areas of the district covering a population of about 36000 where medical services have either been negligible or non-existent.
Under the project, the Centre organised a five-day orientation workshop of FNGOs representatives at Chittorgarh, during October 09-13, 2006. The purpose of the workshop was to provide in-depth information to the selected FNGOs. It also aimed to prepare a broad view of the areas to be covered under the project after taking into account the current health scenario.
“The people of villages and hamlets of far-flung and inaccessible areas should receive medical services, and there should not be untimely death of the mother or the child during childbirth for want of such facilities. For this, nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) should work as facilitator in providing medical services”, said Dr Hemraj Niyarta, Chief Medical & Health Officer, Chittorgarh.
Speaking on the occasion, Shashi Prabha, Centre Coordinator informed the participants that the Mother NGO scheme, which is initiated by Department of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India (GoI), focuses on creating awareness about health services related to reproduction and enhancing the capacity building of NGOs, so that they could assist the villagers in getting these services. She further informed that the Reproductive and Child Health Society, Chittorgarh has selected Help Sansthan, Pratapgarh, Arunodaya Sansthan, Bari Sadri and Vikas Sansthan, Bari Sadri to implement the scheme effectively.
RK Sharma of CUTS, Jaipur, informed the participants that in comparison with other countries, India has a very high woman mortality rate during childbirth, and hence there is a need for increasing public as well as institutional participation. He said that the main objective of the scheme is to lessen the mortality rate among mothers and children during childbirth.
In addition, it also aims to disseminate information on family welfare programmes, so that people could adopt them and help check the population growth he added. Chandramohan Saxena and Rajendra Joshi were the resource persons. Madan Giri Goswami, Madan Lal Keer, Manoj Dixit, Seema Yagnik, Devendra Paliwal – all from CUTS also spoke on the different aspects of the programme.