Sri Lanka to provide a morning meal for all pre-school children this year

State Minister for Women and Child Affairs, Geetha Kumarasinghe, on Thursday (11), announced the commencement of an initiative to provide a morning meal for all pre-school children this year.

The State Minister made these remarks during a press conference held at the Presidential Media Centre (PMC).

She said there are 155,000 pre-school children and that given the high prevalence of malnutrition among Sri Lankan children, the government was planning to provide a protein-rich meal.

She said 100 rupees is allocated for a meal per child.The scheme covers approximately 120,000 urban and rural and 35,000 estate-sector pre-school children.

Kumarasinghe added that plans are underway to distribute nutrition packs to 220,214 pregnant mothers.

These packs will be provided for 10 months and each pack, per month, is valued at 4500 rupees.She added there are 18,333 pre-school teachers, registered under the National Secretariat for Early Childhood Development, and they will be trained anew.

She said currently these teachers are paid 2,500 rupees a month and this stipend will be increased taking into consideration the cost of living.The State Minister added that there are also plans to propose and enact three new bills aimed at safeguarding the rights of children and women.

Among them is a Gender Equality Bill, which proposes the establishment of a Gender Equality Council, encompassing representation for the LGBTIQ community.The Council will hire Gender Focal Point officers for various government institutions, she said, adding that they will also bring laws to ensure that when a woman leaves for a foreign job, for over two years, her child must not be less than five years of age.

Steps have been initiated to collect data at the Divisional Secretariat level to ascertain the number of mothers, with children under five years, who have migrated abroad, she said.She added CCTV cameras will soon be installed in all passenger transport service buses to reduce incidents of violence against women.