Besides, arrangements have also been made for keeping the parents engrossed in "entertainment" activities so that they stay at centre for complete treatment of their children.
The health authorities have noticed that the parents take back their children home before the treatment is complete at the MTCs, which has become a cause for concern for the health department officials.
Now, the state government has made an arrangement to give the parents Rs 165 as minimum wage per day so that they could stay in the MTCs till the treatment is completed. "Earlier, we were giving Rs135 per day to the parents but now it has been increased to Rs 165," Dr Girish Dwivedi, project director, child health said.
The health department officials claimed that the majority of parents of malnourished children are labourers and they earn their livelihood on daily basis. If they stay at MTCs, they lose their daily wage, reason for which they do not stay back till the treatment is completed. "Now, we have ensured that they will get their minimum wages at MTCs while their children are undergoing treatment," Dr Dwivedi said.
There are 147 MTCs in the state - 40 of them are 10 bedded and 107 MTCs are six bedded MTCs. The health department officials feed them at the MTCs and they have allocated separate fund of Rs 100 per day for a child admitted to the centre for the treatment.
The health department has also directed the officials to install LCD TVs at the MTCs for their entertainment. They will be shown movies and songs along with the audio-visual messages on health in local language.
After being discharged from the MTCs, the ANMs of the area will follow up on the child to ensure that they will not get malnourished again.
The health department had written to Centre to allocate funds for minimum wages and also for the food for children admitted to the MTCs. The Centre approved the proposal of the health department recently, said a health department official.
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