Shillong, Sept 19: Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Thursday launched the ‘Guidelines for Monitoring Childhood Development (GMCD) Tool’ for Early Childhood Development (ECD) in Meghalaya.

We are delighted to unveil the Guide for Monitoring Child Development (GMCD) Tool in Shillong, a collaborative effort with Ummeed CDC.

Our Early Child Development Mission has been guided by a commitment to inclusivity and holistic development, acknowledging the pivotal role of… pic.twitter.com/uuikQID5KF

— Conrad K Sangma (@SangmaConrad) September 19, 2024

In his opening remarks, the Chief Minister said, “I am positive that this initiative will be a success as I can sense a lot of passion in the people involved in this which drives them in this endeavour. I remember when I was travelling to Australia as a Member of Parliament in 2016 to a Research Institute where I met a professor who had done a detailed study on China and he said that the youth of India can be its biggest strength or its biggest challenge. I realized that we as a nation and as a state need to focus on the development of our citizens right from inception to their years of childhood, adolescence, and so on.”

Talking about how the state government has taken several interventions to focus on not only the newborn babies but also the mothers as well, he said, “We knew as a government that we had to do something to forge our departments and resources together and then make the start. Upon reviewing the numbers in 2018, I realized that the mortality rate for mothers while delivering is relatively high compared to the national average. We thought that it was institutional deliveries which are the cause of the problem but we realized that it was just a part of a larger picture. With this in mind, we started to focus on early detection of High-Risk Mothers and eventually launched the Chief Minister’s Safe Motherhood Scheme (CM-SMS) in March 2022, which is a program in Meghalaya that aims to reduce maternal and infant mortality rates. We are happy to see results but we are still doing our best to ensure that no mother loses her life during delivery.”

On these lines, the Chief Minister said that the government realized that if the state is to tap the power of the upcoming younger generations, it has to intervene, support and guide them in a holistic approach right from the beginning of their lives till young adulthood.
The Chief Minister also said that as this program is critical in the healthcare sector, where there will be a need to have guidelines to monitor, improve and ensure the overall development of our young citizens right from birth and urged all stakeholders to take responsibility and work with passion for the success of the initiative.

Other speakers at the launch spoke on different aspects of childhood development and how to support psychological and neurological development for newborn babies especially up to 3 years old. The guidelines will help give Standard Operating Procedures on this aspect.

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