The Integrated Child Development Service (ICDS) scheme has failed in the State due to inefficiency of the State Government, RTI activist Sanjay Sahu has said.
He said though the State Government has claimed of taking a lot of measures, including Mamata Yojana, to check child malnutrition and child death in the State, no substantial changes in reduction of child malnutrition deaths have marked during 18 years’ of Naveen Patnaik’s rule.
Despite allocation of huge funds by the Centre, the ICDS project has miserably failed to check child malnutrition in Odisha, mostly in tribal pockets. The State Government is falsely attributing the reason of child death to unknown diseases, he alleged.
He said 55 per cent of of Anganwadi Centres do not have own buildings in Odisha as per the information obtained from the Women and Child Development Department through RTI Act on March 31.
“Due to absence of own building, children are gathered on open fields, under trees or someone’s veranda. Children are not only served food properly but also deprived of immunisation and pre-school education,” he said.
The RTI activist too stated that most of Anganwadi Workers conduct their office work in their houses and hardly visit AWCs. Misappropriation of funds and distribution of low quality Chhatua have marred the ICDS programme in tribal pockets, he said.
He said the Central funds coming under the IAP, Tribal Sub-Plan and NREGA could have been used to develop infrastructure for AWCs. Besides, MP lAD, MlA lAD funds could have been used to develop infrastructure.
“lack of transparency, maladministration and corruption perpetuated by the State Governemnt has brought down economic development of the state and resulted in big failure of ICDS project in Odisha,” he said.