NEW DELHI: The celebration of PM Narendra Modi’s 75th birthday on Wednesday has seen a a number of initiatives based on “Seva hi Samarpan” (Service is Devotion), with BJP-led Centre and state govts, along with civil society groups, pulling out all stops to turn the milestone into an occasion for the launch of welfare schemesThe Union government chose the occasion to launch the “Swasth Nari, Sashakt Parivar Abhiyaan (Healthy Woman, Powerful Family)” along with the 8th Rashtriya Poshan Maah (National Nutrition Month) at Dhar, Madhya Pradesh, underlining the importance of women’s health and empowerment as the foundation of a stronger society.From Dhar, the PM also transferred funds to nearly one million women under the Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana. He unveiled the ‘Suman Sakhi Chatbot’, aimed at providing rural and remote-area women with timely information on maternal and child health.Ministries and allied organisations across BJP-ruled states rolled out service-oriented programmes – from medical camps to massive plantation drives and blood donation campaigns. In Gujarat, the Samprati Foundation held a mega medical camp distributing tricycles and assistive devices to Divyangjans. At the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, one of the world’s largest blood donation drives was organised. In Delhi, pap smear and mammography camps for women were organised. Protection of the environment was another focus of the activities organised. Odisha surpassed its target of planting 75 lakh saplings by planting over 1.49 crore across more than 71,000 sites. In Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, the “Namo Upvan” forest project was inaugurated along the Narmada river using the Miyawaki technique.
