At least Rs 100 needed to provide a decent morning meal to a preschool student – State Minister of Women and Child Affairs

State Minister of Women and Child Affairs Geetha Kumarasinghe at a press conference held at the Presidential Media Centre (PMC) on Thursday (11) under the theme ‘Collective path to a stable country’ said that the government had undertaken to provide a nutritious morning meal to 155,000 of the 585,000 preschool children in the country but lamented that, with escalating prices of provisions, the Sixty Rupees allocated  per student at present was insufficient. She said that the sum should be increased at least to Rupees One Hundred to provide a complete meal to a student.

The State Minister pointed out that mothers will give birth to healthy offspring only if they consume nutritious meals during their pregnancy and to ensure that the future generation is born healthy, the government is providing  nutrition packs valued at Rs 4,500 each for a period of ten months (4 months before and 6 months after confinement) to pregnant females who are from low income groups.  She said that at present there were 220,214 pregnant mothers who were receiving theses nutrition packs.

Minister Kumarasinghe said that a monthly stipend of a mere Rupees Two Thousand Five Hundred was being paid to the 18,333 trained pre-school teachers registered under the National Secretariat for Early Childhood Development. She said that she was ashamed even to mention the amount and said that she would do her best to get the sum increased to at least  Rupees Fifteen Thousand per month.