Conrad launches state guide to early childhood devpt

Shillong: CM Conrad K Sangma launched the state guidelines for monitoring childhood development (GMCD) here on Thursday to support psychological and neurological development of newborn babies, especially up to three years of age.
“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,” Conrad said.
He spoke at length about how the state govt has undertaken several interventions to focus on not only the newborn babies but also mothers.
He said, “Upon reviewing the numbers in 2018, I realised that the maternal mortality rate was relatively high compared to the national average. We thought lack of institutional delivery was the cause of the problem, but realised 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 CM’s Safe Motherhood Scheme in 2022.”