More than one-third children in the state do not get any benefit under Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS). Only 29.8% in urban and 91.4% rural households are getting benefits under the ICDS. Worse, one in 10 children below five years in the state does not receive prescribed immunisation like BCG, polio, DPT and measles.
These findings are part of a comprehensive nutrition survey of Maharashtra (CNSM) conducted by United Nations Children’s Fund on behalf of state government. The report was released in Mumbai on Friday.
Conducted in 2012, the survey covered more than 2,600 children of rural and urban households across six administrative divisions – Amravati, Aurangabad, Nashik, Kokan (includes Mumbai), Pune and Nagpur.
The Kokan division was found to be the worst in getting nutritional scheme. More than 60% of the children in the Kokan division were not covered in the ICDS scheme, states the report.
The report reads that one-fourth mothers in the state are yet to be covered under any nutrition scheme. The state has targeted schemes for mother-child nutrition since 2005 and its second phase is going on with a focus on ‘1,000-day means from womb to age two years’, covering most vulnerable section of the society.
However, the report points out that between 2006 (national family health survey) and 2012 (CNSM), there is a substantial improvement in the children’s nutrition. Stunting has gone down from 39% to 23% in the last six years. During the same period, wasting declined from 19.9% to 16.3% and underweight from 29.6% to 22.6%.
Women and child development minister Varsha Gaikwad and principal secretary and ICDS director Vandana Krishna were not available to comment. Ravi Duggal, health analyst of International Budget Partnership, says, “ICDS offers only Rs2.5 per child a day. As a result, food served at anganwadis is so bad that even enrolled children don’t avail it.”
Dr DK Mangal, program director of United Nations Population Fund (Maharashtra), says: “Even after 38 years of the scheme, it has failed to reach to all children and pregnant women. The government has to see where it lacks.”
About the scheme
The ICDS aims at providing services such as supplementary nutrition, health monitoring and immunisation for pregnant women, nursing mothers and children under six years of age. This year’s total allocation for nutritional budget is Rs2,665 crore.
Breastfeeding pattern
The survey found a majority of women in urban and rural area belong to the working class. This seems to affect their breastfeeding pattern. 67% rural women started breastfeeding within an hour of giving birth as compared to 56% urban women.
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