Dhangadi, June 20

Gauriganga Municipality has started a campaign of gifting leafy greens and ghee to new mothers with the aim of habituating them to consume food items containing vitamins before and post-delivery, in Kailali.

Municipality Mayor Bhim Bahadur Deuba and Deputy Mayor Anchala Chaudhary reached out to the new mothers with leafy greens and one kg ghee in the municipal areas. “Only leafy greens and one kg of ghee is not sufficient for the new mothers,” the mayor said. He added they had started a drive to spread the knowledge that new mothers needed nutritious food.

The municipality has launched the campaign from this fiscal. According to the municipality, the people’s representatives reached around 200 houses of new mothers and offered them leafy greens and ghee this fiscal. Mayor Deuba said effective programmes targeting new mothers would be launched in the next fiscal.

Freed kamaiya and women from the squatter areas cannot buy even one kg ghee. “We will bring additional programmes targeting people with poor economic background,” said Deuba.

Deputy Mayor Chaudhary claimed that the campaign would help minimise the superstitious belief of keeping new mothers in chhaupadi huts.

Chief Administrative Officer of the municipality Bhakta Raj Joshi said distribution of leafy greens and ghee had its own significance even though it was a small step.