A recent Government survey found that one in four kids enrolled with the anganwadi centres across the country are underweight due to poor diet. The study was conducted by the Women and Child Development Ministry under its Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS).
There are around 13.3 lakh anganwadi and mini-anganwadi centres across India that provide supplementary nutrition, non-formal pre-school education, immunisation and health check-ups for children from the economically-weaker sections.
Reacting to the study, the WCD Ministry has already initiated corrective measures, including revamping of its four existing quality-control labs. “There are four old laboratories in each metro which are non-functional. We will upgrade them depending on the amount of funds we are able to get from the Government,” a WCD Ministry official said, adding that the Delhi lab will be revamped into a state-of-art facility.
“The labs will undertake random tests of the food supplied to children to establish whether the supplement is in accordance with the prescribed norms of the ministry’s ICDS,” said the official. The Board will also launch 12 new labs in the States where undernourishment is predominant.
A project report is being prepared by the WCD Ministry for the labs, which has a total estimate of Rs60 crore. The Ministry also aims to crack the whip on State administrations, which are found to have failed in providing adequate supplementary nutrition to children in view of resource constraints.
“The labs would help us to check whether the money provided by the Government is being utilised or not,” he said. Under ICDS, the Centre provides 50 per cent of the total expenditure incurred by the State administrations on supplementary nutrition.