Bengaluru: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Monday launched Matrupurna, a midday meal scheme for pregnant women and lactating mothers at Vidhana Soudha Banquet Hall.

“The scheme introduced by the women and child development department deserves appreciation. The state government has allocated Rs 202 crore for this scheme. Around 30 lakh beneficiaries will avail this scheme,’’ Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said.

The scheme primarily aims at ensuring these women receive nutritious food so that they deliver healthy babies and avoid malnourishment.

“The supply of midday meal will make pregnant women and lactating mothers healthy. Karnataka, after Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, is implementing this scheme in the country,’’ the chief minister said.

The chief minister has also explained about the other welfare schemes such as free rice, milk for school children. “The number of people migrating to other states has come down due to the free rice scheme despite severe drought in the state,’’ he said.

The Department of Women and Child Development has identified around 53,812 women in the district eligible to receive the midday meal. According to the officials, while 26,797 of these women are pregnant, the remaining 27,015 have given birth recently.

The food will be provided to them at Anganwadi centres along with the midday meal scheme being implemented for children. The women will be served hot meals at around 2,313 such centres across the district.

The officials said that owing to malnourishment among the pregnant women, their unborn babies do not get adequate nourishment, which in turn affects the infant mortality rate. The women also face life threatening situations as the chances of blood loss is high during delivery.

The scheme has been designed to ensure the supply of food for at least 300 days — from the beginning of pregnancy till 45 days after delivery. However, the food will not be served on government holidays.

Minister for Women and Child Development Umashree said the financial aid from the Central Government for empowering women has been reduced. “Earlier, the Central Government used to provide 90 per cent of funds to the state government for implementing the welfare schemes for women. Now, the state government allocating 80 per cent of the funds on its own,’’ Minister Umashree said.

The officials said that the meals will consist of rice and sambar, vegetables, eggs, 200 ml milk, jaggery, soaked Bengal gram, and other nutritious foods. Besides this, calcium and iron tablets would also be supplied.

The government is spending around Rs. 21 on each woman daily for the scheme.

Appreciating the scheme, V. S. Ugrappa, MLC, said the state government has given more importance for the welfare of women in the state.

Minister for Urban Development and Haj R. Roshan Baig presided over the function.