The Centre will pump in Rs 1,23,580 crore over the next five years for Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS)—a flagship programme aimed at providing basic education, health and nutrition services for early childhood development. This includes opening more Anganwadi and ASHA centres and employing more volunteers for such centres.
To address the malnutrition problem, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched the National Nutrition Mission Plan—Poshan Abhiyan—at a mega event in Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan, on 8 March 2017. The mission was approved by the Union Cabinet in December 2017, with a Rs 9,046 crore budget for 2017-18. Though this budget is a thrice of what was being spent by the previous UPA government, some activists and NGOs have claimed that even the current budgetary allocation is insufficient to provide supplementary nutrition. Under the Poshan Abhiyan, monitoring is done through ICDS-CAS aimed at augmenting the system strength. The country is celebrating September as the “National Nutrition Month”.
According to provisions of the Poshan Abhiyan, for providing supplementary nutrition, the Centre recently raised allocation to Rs 8 daily per malnourished child between six months to three years, Rs 9.50 daily for pregnant women and lactating mothers and for every severely malnourished child, the government spends Rs 12.50 daily. Till the Poshan Abhiyan was launched by the incumbent government, the corresponding daily expenditure figures for providing supplementary nutrition under the UPA government were Rs 6, Rs 8 and Rs 9 respectively.
Sunita Sharma, who heads an Anganwadi centre in Delhi, told The Sunday Guardian: “Despite a fast-growing economy and the world’s largest anti-malnutrition programme—the Poshan Abhiyan—India still has the world’s worst level of child malnutrition. The Centre’s spending is hardly sufficient to reduce the problem of malnutrition.”
Bimlesh Devi, an activist working for the programme, told this newspaper: “The amount for providing supplementary nutrition should be increased at least two fold; otherwise, the programme is not going to achieve the expected results.”
However, praising the Centre’s efforts to eradicate the malnutrition problem, Dr Antaryami Dash of Save the Children, an NGO, said: “The Government of India acknowledges the need to address issues of malnutrition and we have seen several policies and programmes to improve maternal, child and adolescent nutrition in the country. The efforts and commitment shown by government towards the Poshan Abhiyan, which is now a national flagship programme, is appreciable.