Shillong, 19th September 2024: Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma today launched the Guidelines for Monitoring Childhood Development (GMCD) tool, designed to enhance Early Childhood Development (ECD) across Meghalaya. The event took place at the Courtyard Marriott
Addressing the gathering, Chief Minister Conrad Sangma expressed confidence in the program’s success, stating, “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.” He recalled a visit to Australia in 2016, where a professor underscored the importance of focusing on childhood development, observing, “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,” he said.
Reflecting on the government’s ongoing interventions, Sangma shared insights into the Chief Minister’s Safe Motherhood Scheme (CM-SMS), which was launched in March 2022 to reduce maternal and infant mortality in Meghalaya. “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,” he said.
On these lines, the Chief Minister said that the government upon realizing 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.
He urged all stakeholders to actively contribute to the success of this initiative, stressing that the GMCD tool is critical to improving healthcare outcomes for the state’s youngest citizens.
This launch marks a significant step in the state’s commitment to nurturing the physical and mental well-being of children while addressing broader health challenges faced by mothers and infants.
The event saw the participation of key officials, including Principal Secretary of Health, Sampath Kumar, and Director of Social Welfare, Camelia Doreen Lyngwa.
The panel of speakers 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.