Vedanta NGO to support Anganwadis

BANGALORE: Mumbai-based non-profit organisation Vedanta Foundation signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the state government on Tuesday to support 2,635 anganwadi centres under the Integrated Child Development Service (ICDS) programme.Under its flagship programme Bal Shakti, the foundation will focus on providing nutrition to pre-school children.“Bal Shakti is a national programme. We want to focus on the nutrition levels of the children by supplementing the state government’s work,” said Vedanta Foundation’s CEO Ravi Krishnan.He added that nutrition initiatives such as supplying eggs and maintaining a team to monitor nutrition levels would be introduced under the programme. The agreement was signed with the CEOs of district administrations of Chikballapur, Bangalore urban, rural and Ramanagaram.The MoU will cover 1,139 anganwadi centres in Chikballapur, 1,207 in Bangalore rural, 222 in Bangalore urban and 67 in Ramanagaram districts.  Over 1,10,000 children between the age group of 3 and 6 years will benefit from this programme. Principal Secretary for Department of Women and Child Development Ramesh B Zalki said, “This programme will augment government’s initiatives.”