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ShareWhile India faces one of it's worst-ever price rise periods, a neglected section of the population is silently bearing the brunt of inflation. Around 60 per cent of anganwadis in the city, providing supplementary nutrition to malnourished children and lactating mothers, have stopped getting their regular supply of food and therapeutic powders.
Self-help groups run by women have been forced to stop supply to the anganwadis because of the steep price rise, and now the government is in a fix. "We cannot afford to provide even simple khichdi to these children, with the prices of dal and rice escalating," said S Geeta, one of the food suppliers in the Goregaon area. The government has recently increased the allocation per child to Rs4 from the previous sum of Rs2.
"This increase in allocation hardly makes any difference, because dal costs us anything between Rs70 and 80," she added. Mumbai has about 5,000-odd anganwadis. The recently-published Human Development Report stated that only about 45-45 per cent of children across the city receive adequate nutrition. Around 33 per cent of them suffer from Grade-I malnutrition, while 16-17 per cent (with the exception of areas like Jogeshwari and Mulund-west), suffer from Grade-II malnutrition.
Suppliers providing food to anganwadis have also alleged that their bills have not been cleared for almost six months now. "I have run up bills of almost Rs2 lakh. Till the government clears this, I have no resources to cook food or transport them to the anganwadis," said supplier S Dubey. There is also outrage over private contractors getting their bills cleared for supplying therapeutic powder which, according to sources, have not reached many anganwadis for several months now. "The powder, meant to be given to children in the age group six months to two years, is rarely supplied to us," said Vijaymala Sokasane, an anganwadisevika at Aarey Colony. More importantly, private contractors serving food to anganwadis is a violation of the Supreme Court order, which gives self-help groups the sole right to do so.
Authorities from the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) maintain they are trying their best to overcome the crisis. "Payments will be made as soon as we are sure that children are getting the right nutrition," said Dr Manjusha Molwane, deputy commissioner, ICDS. "We understand their constraints, but even our allocations are limited." She added the government has also announced that children have to be given more nutrition, increasing the amount to 500 kilo/calorie from the existing 300 k/cal.
