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We're dying a slow death. But, who cares? Residents of Delhi's Mandawali where 3 sisters starved to death

Three sisters, all minors, died of starvation in a windowless room in Delhi’s Mandawali area. Despite govt’s food security programmes, one of which is 43-years-old, an undernourished future stares at many. DNA takes a closer look at the status of these schemes

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The recent deaths of three minor sisters in the national capital due to “severe malnutrition” had raised serious questions over the implementation of several food schemes run by the government under the National Food Security Act, 2013.

The sisters -- Mansi (8), Shikha (4) and Parul (2) -- were found dead in a 7x7 windowless room, which was actually a home to them, in east Delhi’s Mandawali on July 24. The initial post-mortem report suggested that they had died of prolonged malnutrition. The second post-mortem report confirmed that there was no trace of food in their bodies.  

The incident triggered a political storm with the Opposition holding the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government responsible for it and the latter passing the buck to the Centre and Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal for “blocking” its food distribution schemes. However, this is not the only case of malnutrition among children in the city. According to a study released by an NGO, Naandi foundation, in February, Delhi has the highest percentage of severely malnourished children (11.7 per cent) among the country’s 10 most populous cities. The study was conducted on children under the age of five.

Presently, three key food security programmes — Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme, Mid-Day Meal Scheme and Public Distribution System — are being run by the central and the state government to safeguard citizens’ fundamental Right to Food. However, the deaths of three minors due to “lack of food” is a testimony to the failure of proper implementation of any of these scheme on ground. DNA looks at the status of the schemes that could have aided the family and saved the lives of Mansi and her two sisters.

Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS)

As soon as the news of the three minors dying due to “malnutrition” surfaced, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who is also the minister for the Women and Child Development Department (WCD), asked the officials to submit a report explaining why the children were hungry despite having an Anganwadi Centre right opposite to their house.

Under the ICDS scheme, these Anganwadi Centres (AWCs) are meant to provide supplementary nutrition diet to children up to six years and pregnant and lactating women. They also impart pre-school education to the children of same age group, along with health education, immunisation and health check-ups.

The AWC number-26 is located within a stone’s throw away of the house where Mangal Singh and Beena had moved in with their three daughters on the night of July 21 after their shanty in a neighbouring slum was destroyed in the rain. The house is located in a congested, narrow lane of Mandawali’s Talab Chowk, which is dotted with potholes with a permanent stench permeating from a garbage pile surrounding the entire locality.

Since the family had shifted in the locality just three days before the bodies of three girls were recovered, their names could not be registered in the anganwadi centre that feeds around 40 children and 12 women every day.

To understand the loopholes in the implementation of the scherm, DNA visited several AWCs across the city.

Currently, there are 95 ICDS projects operating through 10,897 AWCs across the city. However, there are only 38 Child Development Project Officers (CDPOs) to supervise them and around 150 to 200 AWCs are operating without any anganwadi workers who are responsible for its functioning.

“We are extremely short of staff. Each angawadi worker is looking after 150-200 houses and it’s impossible for them to visit them every day. We visit the locality on every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, here at Talab Chowk. The family shifted here on a Saturday night (July 21) and the incident happened before we started our round on Tuesday (July 24). Even they themselves did not come to us,” said Madhu Sharma, an anganwadi worker at the centre.

Sitting next to her was another anganwadi worker, Neera Kumari, who looks after 220 houses in Chandar Vihar. “Whenever something like this happens, the government puts the entire blame on us. Apart from visiting the houses, we are made to do several administrative work and trivial jobs. For instance, every day at 9:30 am, we have to click a selfie with the pre-school students and send it on the WhatsApp group of the concerned ICDS project. It’s impossible for us to maintain a day-to-day record of a locality,” she said.

“Mera to phone bhi selfie wala nahi hai (I don’t even have a phone which can click a selfie),” said Sharma as she waved her handset in the air. Until last year, the workers were paid Rs 5,000 a month. However, after several protests and strikes, their salary was revised by the Delhi government to Rs 9,678.

The food at the AWCs is supplied by non-profit organisations chosen by the WCD department. There are 22 in the Capital selected through tendering process. Each kitchen prepares food for 30-40 anganwadis. The cost of food is shared by the Centre and the states. However, the quality of food remains a big challenge even after 43 years of the implementation of ICDS scheme.

At 12:30 pm on a Monday, Madhu Sharma, an anganwadi worker at centre number-23 in Mandawali, starts lining up the children to distribute food. It is Halwa in the menu for the day, like it is every Monday. Even before the helper lifts the lid, five-year-old Shashi suddenly stands up and leaves the room. “He does not like the halwa being served here. And who would like to eat it? I cover my face every time before removng the lid as the stench of oil is unbearable,” the helper says.

The costs per person for the meals under the ICDS are Rs 6 per day for children below six years, Rs 9 per day for malnourished children and Rs 7 per day for pregnant and nursing women. “How do we expect a good quality food in that kind of money? This also includes cooking as well as transportation charges. The prices were revised by the government last year but they have not been implemented yet,” said Beena Roy, a CDPO, who looks after 94 anganwadi centres single-handedly.

The officials at the WCD department said that they keep a weekly track of the anganwadi centres and and the appointments do not come under their jurisdiction. “Our officials and workers make weekly rounds to the angawadi workers. The services do not come under the Delhi government and hence we can not appoint officials for its proper implementation,” said a senior official of the department.

The AWCs have to make monthly record of the malnourished children in their localities. However, due to inadequate means, the reports prepared by them are often challenged by the NGOs working in the field of nutrition and education. “The ICDS data does not record the malnourished children data properly. Several AWCs don’t even have a proper weighing machine. Rather, there should be a state food monitoring committee for such schemes,” said Arvind Singh of Matri Sudha, an NGO.

Meanwhile, the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) recently intimidated the Delhi government’s WCD department about a three-fold rise in the complaints related to malnutrition among children in the city. Afterwards, the department had instructed all the CDPOs to look into the complaints. “The government has asked them to update the data and transfer all malnourished cases to the Nutritional Rehabilitation Centres being run in six government hospitals in the city,” said DCPCR chairperson Ramesh Negi.

The Mid-Day Meal Scheme

The oldest of the three sisters Mansi, 8, was enrolled in Class 3 at Poorvi Dilli Nagar Nigam Vidhyalaya (morning) in Mandawali and was entitled to a meal everyday under the Mid-Day Meal Scheme. She had joined the school in nursery in 2014. However, teachers said that she was always an irregular student. “She was irregular even as she was considerably good in studies. She attended the school only twice in July,” said one of her teachers.

Mansi’s class teacher said, “We had called her parents several times to ask why she was not coming, but we were told that they had gone back to their village. I even asked her classmates if they knew anything about her but none of them knew anything.”

However, parents of other children studying at the school, operating under the east civic body, said that the teachers don’t bother even if their children remain absent for days. “My child fell ill last month and could not attend classes for 15 days. We did not receive any call from the school teacher or from the principal to know about her whereabouts,” mother of a Class 2 student said.

Officials at the east civic body said that due to shortage of staff, it’s difficult to monitor each and very child on a daily basis.

Under the Mid-Day Meal Scheme, children aged between 6 to 14 are entitled to get freshly-prepared meal with nutritional standards of 450 calories and 12 gram proteins for primary and 700 calories and 20 gram proteins for upper primary free of cost at the premises of all government schools every day. However, the quality of food remains a major concern among the parents.

“Every now and then there is a case of children falling ill after consuming mid-day meal. I don’t take the risk. I give my son a tiffin box. He anyways doesn’t like the food being served there,” said Shakti Devi, a domestic help who earns Rs 4,000 every month. Her son studies in Class 5 at the same school in the evening shift. When asked why he didn’t like the food, the 11-year-old said, “Chawal me chooha nikal sakta hai (There could be a rat in the rice).”

Several incidents of children falling sick after eating food served in government schools have been reported in the recent past. Last month, two girls were hospitalised after a dead lizard was found in their mid-day meal at a government school in east Delhi’s Kalyanpuri.

Even as the Delhi government had announced to spend an additional Rs 55 crore to provide bananas and boiled eggs in the mid-day meals, the students are not getting any additional nutrition. “None of the Delhi government or MCD schools have started serving eggs or bananas as of now,” said principal of a government school in West Delhi.

Officials at the Directorate of Education, however, said that the involvement of “multiple agencies” is the reason behind this laxity. “There are around 39 non-profit organisations providing mid-day meals in government schools here. The Delhi government has been trying to bring one NGO, which provides meals to other states as well. But, the matter is still caught in the tussle between the government and the Lt Governor,” said a senior official familiar with the development.

Public Distribution System

Under the Public Distribution System (PDS), the government distributes staple food and non-food items at highly subsidised rates to low income group and to families under the Below Poverty Line (BPL). There are 2,254 Fair Price Shops catering to as many as 72.5 lakh people in the national capital. However, as per the Delhi governments’ economic survey of 2017-18, there are only 19.48 national food security smart ration card holders.

Mangal Singh’s family was one of those lakhs of families surviving without a ration card. Out of the 30 families living in that house-complex in Mandawali, only one has a ration card. “Despite having an Aadhar card, I haven’t been able to get a ration card in the last ten years. Last year, I had filled out a form and paid a bribe of Rs 500 to an official at the ration shop but nothing happened,” said Ram Singh, a rickshaw puller, who lives in a room right opposite to Mangal’s.

Ram and his wife, a domestic help, buy ration on a daily basis for their family of six. “We can’t afford to buy monthly ration. We earn Rs 5,000-7,000 a month, of which Rs 2,500 goes in the rent. We have four children to feed,” said his wife Sunita.

Even those who have ration cards and buy subsidised food complain of the low quality.

The AAP government has been at the loggerheads with the Lt Governor to clear its ambitious ‘door-step delivery scheme for delivering ration to people’s homes. “We have been trying to bring the ‘door-step ration delivery’ scheme to avoid all these hurdles but the BJP government at the Centre and the LG have been stopping us,” AAP spokesperson Saurabh Bhardwaj had said.

Meanwhile, locals in Mandawali said that due to the system’s failure, several other families are staring at a similar future. “Everyone is dying a slow death here. All of us are struggling to feed ourselves. But who cares?” asks Ram Singh, the neighbour.

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