In order to bring down the incidences of malnutrition in the country, the Women and Child Development Ministry has revised nutritional and feeding norms for the supplementary nutrition programme (SNP) in the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme.
The ambitious Food Security Bill may look at being more inclusive-------------
Every Morsel Counts
The alternative version
Jean Dreze, Economist
1. Food security guarantee will have to come from the Centre
2. Does not want to freeze number of BPL families at any inflexible level
3. Wants clear criteria to determine BPL and APL categories, but not with an aim to exclude anyone
BHUBANESWAR: The positive deviance approach (PDA) introduced in early childhood care through integrated child development scheme (ICDS) has started showing results.
The National Family Health Survey-III indicates that the level of malnutrition among children under three years has declined from 50 to 40 per cent.
Despite the Planning Commission and the PMO's objection to packaged food in government creches, women and child development minister Renuka Chowdhury wrote to states in February to provide these to the children
In April she approached the Supreme Court for a directive that would make her note to the states legally binding
Malnutrition has assumed alarming proportions in the State but in spite of the grave situation government has not made significant efforts in this direction. Earlier Women and Child Development Department of the State had sanctioned a paltry sum of Rs 2.70 per day for a malnourished child and this amount could provide 600 Calories to the child.
New Delhi: Even as it pledges to guarantee food for the vulnerable in its manifesto, the Congress-led government has on the sly tried one last ploy to push the case of contractors and middlemen in supplying nutrition to eight crore poor children under the Integrated Child Development Scheme.
