The Eleventh Five-Year Plan is considering three options with regard to food that will served to targeted populations -- hot cooked meals prepared by local groups, provision of micronutrient fortified food, or the development of a mechanism to take the decision at a lower level than the central or state level

At least nine Indian states are still using contractors to procure, store and distribute grain under the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), a Rs 2,000 crore supplementary nutrition programme for women and children, despite a four-year-old Supreme Court order that ruled against the use of middlemen.

The court-appointed Right to Food Commissioners have noted in their Seventh Report that the ambitious programme that aims to fight malnutrition in 7.36 crore children and pregnant and lactating women across the country is failing because states refuse to follow the court's directives on procurement and preparation of food under the flagship scheme.

The commissioners were able to gather data from only 22 states, and they found that Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Orissa, Rajasthan, Chandigarh , Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Daman and Diu continue to depend on contractors to supply food to women and children in anganwadis and balwadis.

In 2004, the Supreme Court ordered that, “contractors shall not be used for supply of nutrition in anganwadis, and, preferably, ICDS funds shall be spent by making use of village communities, self-help groups and mahila mandals for buying of grain and preparation of meals”. The court was attempting to root out rampant corruption in the centralised procurement of foodgrain.

Right to Food Commissioner N C Saxena had earlier written to the prime minister about corruption in centralised purchases for feeding programmes, rendering them ineffective. The sum involved is a phenomenal Rs 53,000 crore, a tempting amount for many to seek a share in it.

The timing and revelations of this report are critical as the ICDS is set for a major overhaul and the Eleventh Five-Year Plan is considering three options with regard to food that will served to targeted populations.

Besides, attempts are also being made to question the court's ban on contractors. The Ministry for Women and Child Development (WCD) has submitted an affidavit to the court questioning the decentralisation of procurement procedures and the ban on contractors, wholesalers and packaged food producers. The ministry's argument is that the scheme provides only supplementary nutrition, not cooked meals, to women and children.

WCD minister Renuka Choudhary also differs from the prime minister's office, the National Advisory Council and the Planning Commission on the issue of providing hot cooked meals to children under the programme. According to ministry sources, Choudhary is keen to abandon the practice of providing locally prepared cooked meals and replacing it with a scheme of centrally procured packaged food for distribution to children. “All children like burgers,” Choudhary has been quoted as saying, dismissing arguments about local tastes and food habits. She favours a scheme to provide supplementary nutrition by giving children packaged food procured through centralised purchases.

She has even commissioned a survey by the National Institute of Public Cooperation and Child Development (NIPCCD) to study how the existing scheme of providing local hot cooked meals was functioning. The survey, say sources, was aimed at bolstering her contention by establishing that hot cooked meals were a bad idea.

However, there is no likelihood of the cooked meals scheme being dropped in favour of packaged food, Planning Commission sources say.

Barring the WCD ministry, all major government bodies as well as the Supreme Court have consistently and strongly held that locally prepared hot cooked meals are best for meeting the nutritional requirements of children since they are in accordance with local tastes and food habits. “We are in favour of hot cooked meals for children,” said Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, the prime minister's handpicked man for the job.

Still, the Eleventh Plan document lays out three options for the future of the supplementary nutrition programme -- either hot cooked meals will be provided by self-help groups, mothers' groups or village committees, as ordered by the Supreme Court, or micronutrient fortified food can be provided. This will entail centralised procurement, and, consequently, the use of wholesalers, contractors and food manufacturers. Surprisingly, this option is being considered despite the government stating in the Plan document that the benefits of micronutrient fortified food have not yet been established.

The third avenue being explored is a mechanism to take the decision at a lower level than the central or state level.

Source: www.googlenews.com, January 26, 2008
              www.dnaindia.com, January 26, 2008