[Reader-list] RTF (Right to Food) Articles - 4

Sun Aug 2 13:18:15 IST 2009

*Bachpan ko kare aabaad, Anganwadi Zindabad! *

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Aashish Gupta <aashu.gupta20 at gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Aug 2, 2009 at 12:35 PM
Subject: Children in the Soup
To: Rakesh Iyer <rakesh.rnbdj at gmail.com>

Children in the soup
http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=Children+in+the+soup&artid=rFjyRa4zQDo=&SectionID=f4OberbKin4=&MainSectionID=f4OberbKin4=&SEO=&SectionName=cxWvYpmNp4fBHAeKn3LcnQ==

Jayanthi takes great pride in showing off her kitchen and the meal for the
day — sweetened* ladoo*-like balls made of a nutritious mix, *kolukatai* (a
pastry), and dal and rice with vegetables. It may not sound very exciting,
but for the 15-odd children below the age of six who visit her
*anganwadi *centre
every day, it is the staff of life, not to mention the pregnant women she
meets on her home visits. Her meals are aimed at a problem more stubborn
than poverty: malnutrition.

While everyone from the World Bank to the Economic Survey 2008-09 has
commended India for reducing poverty, malnutrition is a different story
altogether. Measured by underweight children below three, malnutrition has
decreased only marginally — from 47 per cent in 1998-99 to 45.9 in 2006
despite the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme, the largest
child development programme of its kind in the world.

The ICDS, better known as the *anganwadi* programme was started in 1975 to
tackle malnutrition among children, mothers and adolescent women, and
provide pre-school education to children below six, and basic healthcare.

For Jayanthi (name changed), one of the scores of *anganwadi* workers
indispensable to this programme, the day begins at 9 am and continues till
at least 6 pm. Some days she even takes her work — teaching aids and
colourful models — home with her. “But when I am here, I need to make sure
the children get their food and supplements. If they don’t turn up, I visit
their home and leave the food there.” The delivery of nutritious food is
core to the programme, as malnutrition has far-reaching impacts, including
impaired cognitive and social development, poor school performance and
reduced productivity in later life. Any way you look at it, it’s a big
threat to socio-economic development.

For instance, if productivity goes down, it becomes harder for individuals
to get out of the poverty trap. They remain stuck in a cycle of low
productivity and malnutrition. And this opens them up to preventable
disabilities. A World Bank report says 70 per cent of cases of vision
impairment and half of hearing problems in Asia and Africa are preventable
or treatable.

So, a large part of Jayanthi’s job includes telling young mothers what to
feed their children. “They all say they use iodised salt, but then they
don’t always. I also advise them on what kind of vegetables to feed the
children,” she explains.

 Sadly, not all anganwadis function as well as Jayanthi’s and the ICDS
itself has certain built-in flaws, says Biraj Patnaik, the principal advisor
to the Supreme Court Commissioners. Thus it has never realised its true
potential. Among other things, money was a problem. Till 2002-03, many
states spent less than Rs 1 per child per day. The apex court doubled this
in ’04, while also pushing for universalisation by December ’08. That meant
14 lakh *anganwadi* centres (against the existing six lakh). According to a
compliance report in early ’08, some eight lakh were operational, while
about 10 lakh had been sanctioned

.Last April, in another landmark judgment, the Supreme Court again doubled
the amount for every child as well as the calorific value of the food to be
provided while deciding on the Right To Food case (bringing it to Rs 4 per
child and 500 calories). The new verdict also bans the use of contractors to
provide food — thereby hoping the stem the widespread corruption that
afflicts the programme.

But corruption is just one of the concerns. More important is that only
30-odd per cent of child have access to it. Of the children who manage to
reach the *anganwadi*, most are older than three, by which point
malnutrition has already set in.

Patnaik and his colleagues at the Supreme Court Commissioner’s office work
closely with the Right to Food campaign which not only pushes for change but
also tracks states for quality and compliance. The team is charged with
monitoring states and pulling them up for failure to meet ICDS requirements.
For instance, correspondence from last October indicates that Madhya Pradesh
switched from hot cooked meals to ready-to-eat upma, a violation of court
orders. “We focus primarily on the BIMARU states where the situation is
worst,” he says wearily.

So what else ails the system? “One key problem is that it doesn’t focus
enough on children less than two. We need nutrition rehabilitation centres
which will work along with the Primary Health Centre, not to mention a
second worker to help the *anganwadi* worker,” he adds.

They are seriously overloaded.  Jayanthi and her helper, who have worked at
the *anganwadi *from 1984-85, not only cook, feed the children, play with
them, teach them, do home visits, regularly weigh them, but often find the
time and resources to go beyond the call of duty. For instance, she is busy
coordinating with young mothers to take their children to the government
hospital in the coming week. “Sometimes, they are reluctant to go on their
own, or cannot get away, in which case, I take the children so they don’t
miss out on check-ups,” she says.

 Is ICDS alone enough? SC Commissioner N C Saxena’s 2009 report studies data
from the National Family Health Survey-III. It shows that while only 32.9
per cent of children utilised any service from the *anganwadi*, in states
where utilisation was higher, the effects on malnutrition were dramatic. In
Chhattisgarh and Orissa, two of the poorest states, utilisation was 65.2 per
cent and 65.8 per cent respectively. Malnutrition levels fell from 54.4 per
cent to 44 per cent in Orissa, while in Chhattisgarh it went from 60.8 per
cent to 52.1 per cent. Eerily enough, in Kerala, one of the most advanced
states, with utilisation of any service at 30.8 per cent, malnutrition
increased from 26.9 per cent to 28.8 per cent, with only 11.4 per cent
living below the poverty line.

Saxena’s conclusions are that, yes, the *anganwadi *makes a critical
difference.   Children without access to one are more undernourished than
those in areas covered by an *anganwadi* operational for more than five
years. “The only variable that is highly significant and has a positive
impact on nutritional status is if the child received early childcare at the
AWC. Maharashtra (50 per cent), West Bengal (39 per cent), and Chhattisgarh
(37 per cent) reported the highest percentage of children receiving early
childcare/preschool. These states are among the top five performers in
reducing under-nutrition. This strengthens the argument for focusing on
these services,” he adds. Fair enough, given that Jayanthi’s wards wouldn’t
be able to go for check-ups often enough, if not for her.

Of course, merely functional ICDS centres won’t work — what they provide is
as important, if not more to ensure regular attendance at the centres. The
debate has been between hot cooked meals and ready-to-eat mixes or fortified
biscuits, but with the Supreme Court ruling out contractors and the Cabinet
for hot meals, that battle is over. Implementation is another story.

Reports show that RTE mixes like India Mix, supplied by the World Food
Programme, ended up as cattle feed after it was rejected by children. The
Focus Survey of six states showed that RTE had more health complaints
because of poor quality, not to mention that packaged food tended to be
taken home and shared with family whenever possible. But this has not
deterred states from continuing with these snacks. “One IAS officer in
Andhra Pradesh,’’ Patnaik says, ‘‘had even done a study on how milch cattle
have increased productivity when fed RTE food!

”Patnaik’s office compiled data from 14 states to show the food being
offered at the various ICDS centres. The report says states like Assam,
Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Meghalaya and Bihar focused on Take Home
Rations for children below three, along with hot cooked meals for all
children below six, in Nagaland, children between three and six years get
Maggi and Top Ramen, while Uttarakhand provides India mix. RTE snacks are
provided in Kerala but are manufactured by state-run/supported SHGs. “We
have the power to pull up states before for contempt of the Supreme Court,
but it is a process of negotiation. We focus mostly on the BIMARU states
anyway with our five-member team,” Patnaik adds.

*What are Anganwadis?

*ICDS services are provided through a vast network of ICDS centres, which
are better known as *anganwadis*. The term *anganwadi* developed from the
idea that a good early child care and development centre could be run with
low cost local materials even when located in an ‘angan’ or courtyard.
The *anganwadi
*centre is operated by a modestly paid *anganwadi *worker, assisted by an *
anganwadi* helper or *sahayika*. The local anganwadi is the cornerstone of
the ICDS programme.

*The Missing  millions*

The 2008 report from the Supreme Court Commissioners focused on hunger among
groups that were vulnerable and likely to be left out of government services
altogether, “invisibilised.” Among these groups are large numbers of
children left out due to disability (extremely rare to see them in *
anganwadis*), because they live on the streets, in urban slums or are
children of migrant labourers.While access and fear of ill-treatment
prevents disabled children from reaching anganwadis, lack of documentation
and migrancy affect children of migrant workers. But 70 per cent of India’s
slum children are malnourished in comparison to the national average of 46
per cent. The report shows that only 10 per cent of *anganwadis* are in
urban areas though one-third of the poor are urban dwellers. Forty per cent
of urban slums are excluded from ICDS because they are illegal/unauthorised.
Only 40 per cent of urban ICDS centres have cooking space. Only 49 pc have
utensils.

(Source: Anganwadis for all: A Primer)

— *ranjitha.gunasekaran at gmail.com*