All married women who are pregnant and nursing mothers not deployed to their husbands’ places of domicile can now proceed to the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) camps within their spouses’ states of residence, the scheme has said.

NYSC, however, said the pregnant women or nursing mothers must present for registration in addition to other documents, evidence of marriage, husbands’ identity and evidence of husbands’ place of domicile.

Director – General of the NYSC, Brig Gen Shuaibu Ibrahim said this during a briefing on the 2021 Batch C Stream One orientation exercise which commenced Wednesday in all the 37 camps nationwide.

The director – general explained that the new policy was to ease the burden on the women, saying that the NYSC is “an organisation with a human face.”

“All married pregnant and nursing mothers not deployed to their husbands’ places of domicile can now proceed to the NYSC camps within their spouses’ states of residence but must present for registration in addition to other documents, evidence of marriage, husbands’ identity and evidence of husbands’ place of domicile,” the DG said.

The Director – General, who was represented by Director, Press and Public Relations of the NYSC, Mrs Adenike Adeyemi, insisted that only prospective corps members and camp officials who test negative will gain access into the camp.

According to the DG, officials from the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) would be present in the 37 orientation camps during the exercise.

He said: “Prospective corps members and staff are aware of COVID-19 rules and safety protocols. In addition, every PCM and camp official would be tested at the camp gate and only those who test negative will gain access into the camp. NCDC officials are present in the 37 orientation camps.

“All camps have been fumigated and decontaminated in readiness to receive prospective Corps Members.

“There will be compulsory use of face mask, 2-meter social distancing and other non-pharmaceutical interventions on safety protocols in all our camps; (a) The hostel arrangement is in compliance with this. (b) Staggered registration of PCMs in batches still undertaken to avoid overcrowding at registration points.

“Synergy with the NCDC is still on. This is to ensure the safety of all prospective corps members and staff including the general public.”