Kota (Rajasthan) January 3 (PTI) Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla Om Birla and Rajasthan's Deputy Chief Minister Diya Kumari launched the third phase of 'Suposhit Maa' campaign in Kota on Friday and distributed nutrition kits to 1,500 pregnant women from impoverished families.

The campaign aims at providing proper nutrition and health security to pregnant women from poor and marginalised sections of society in the Kota-Bundi parliamentary area.

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Birla is the Lok Sabha MP from Kota Bundi.

Speaking on the occasion, he stressed that nutrient diet is the top priority for pregnant women and said Suposhit Maa (well-nourished mother) campaign was initiated to ensure that the upcoming generation is healthy and pregnant women receive adequate nutrition.

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Anguished by the deaths of infants in a Kota hospital in 2019, Suposhit Maa campaign was conceptualised and kicked off in 2020 to ensure that no mother may loss her child, Birla said. He pointed out one of the major reasons of infant deaths was insufficient nutrition and poor health of mothers.

The campaign's primary focus is to identify pregnant women from poor and marginalised sections and provide them with free check-ups and nutritious food for nine months. He urged the attendees to report any pregnant women in their neighbourhood, village or community who are not receiving nutritious food due to poverty so that they can be included in the third phase of the campaign.

He emphasised that with new resolutions in the New Year, efforts will be made to make women economically self-reliant in every village and community in the Kota-Bundi parliamentary area, and to provide economic and social security to girls born into economically poor families.

'Swagat Baby' (Welcome to baby) -- a social security scheme as resolve of the New Year -- will soon be launched to ensure support to girl child till her womanhood, Birla said.

Speaking on the occasion, Kumari appreciated the efforts by the Speaker and urged that it is everyone's responsibility to ensure the nutrition of pregnant women. The deputy chief minister also mentioned that discussions will be held with Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma regarding a plan for the nutrition plan of pregnant women in the upcoming budget.

She urged pregnant women to pay proper attention to their nutrition. She appealed to family members to care for the health of pregnant women to ensure that they receive right nutrition, maintain good health and give birth to healthy babies.

Nutrition kits were symbolically provided to 20 pregnant women on the occasion. One thousand five hundred women received these nutrition kits. Five female doctors were honoured for conducting free check-ups for pregnant women.

Kota South MLA Sandeep Sharma, Ladpura MLA Kalpana Devi, Kota South Mayor Rajeev Agarwal and other public representatives besides a large gathering were present in the event organised in Chappan Bhog ground in the city.

Over the past five years, more than 15,000 pregnant women have received over 100,000 nutrition kits through this campaign. The nutrition kits have been prepared on the advice from expert doctors and nutritionists to necessary nutrition and balanced diet during pregnancy.

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