Keeping in view nutritional deficiency faced by school going children. CM Punjab Maryam Nawaz introduced the School nutrition Program. The pilot project will provide nutrition rich milk packs to students.
The main objective of this program is to combat malnutrition found commonly in children especially. This project will initially target primary school children and will be extended to higher grades.
This program will target 400,000 students from three districts initially – Rajanpur, Dera Ghazi Khan and Muzaffargarh. Data collected from these districts showed the highest number of malnutritional children.
CM Punjab School Nutrition Program
CM Punjab Maryam Nawaz personally visited Dera Ghazi Khan and inaugurated this pilot program emphasising the importance of health and nutrition among children. She calls the slogan “Eat, Drink and Study”.
She addressed the public and emphasised on the dire need of reforms in the education system. The Government of Punjab is planning to change the curriculum as well in phases over time.
CM Punjab instructed children to submit empty milk packs to school as they will be recycled and the revenue generated will be spent for the betterment of the respective school.
Key Objectives of School Nutrition Program
The CM Punjab School Nutrition Program, as the name suggests, is a program initiated by the Government of Punjab, Pakistan. Bringing better health and learning outcomes for schoolchildren, particularly in disadvantaged areas are the main goals.
The key elements of the program would be focused on:
Aggregately, break the malnutrition-poor education cycle for a better and healthier educated populace.
Targeted Areas and beneficiaries
The CM Punjab School Nutrition Program concentrates on nutritional support amongst the poorer sections of the population in the most deprived areas of Punjab, rural and low-income urban regions.
The purpose of this program is to prioritize communities that are being burdened with increased poverty and stunted growth of children.
Districts like Bahawalpur, Dera Ghazi Khan, and Rajanpur are key areas of focus. Apart from rural areas, the program also includes low-income urban areas.
Schools in major cities, such as Lahore, Multan, and Faisalabad, which take in children from economically deprived backgrounds, are also beneficiaries.
The majority of the beneficiaries of the program are school-going children, and most of these children come from the most vulnerable families. Most of these children were suffering from malnutrition.
It actually causes stunted growth and weak cognitive development in them. In such cases, the daily nutritious meals provided by the program address the major issues of their ill health and poor academic performance.
