Meal For Thought

Renuka Proposes

Packaged fortified food, instead of hot, cooked meals, for children under six covered by the ICDS
Renuka Chowdhury's ministry wants additional financial allocation for her pet project of providing packaged food
She wants centralised procurement of packaged food through a chain of government-appointed contractors

PMO Disposes

It wants the Union women & child development ministry to stick to hot, cooked meals. PMO letter also cites Supreme Court ruling.
Funds must be used for freshly cooked meals
Scheme must be implemented through local elected bodies and the meals must prepared at government- run anganwadis

Call it Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's way of telling Union women and child development minister Renuka Chowdhury that enough is enough. Despite the best efforts to dissuade her from her pet project of going in for packaged fortified food under the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) instead of hot, cooked meals that most nutrition experts and the Planning Commission recommend, Renuka Chowdhury wouldn't relent. Ultimately, it prompted the PMO to send her a strongly worded note on June 23 (accessed by Outlook) that in effect asks her to shelve her plan and do as the experts say.

The implementation of the ambitious ICDS, allocated no less than Rs 51,400 crore under the Eleventh Plan, has been a bone of contention between the minister and other arms of the government. Even the PMO has found it hard to keep aloof. The scheme aims to ensure that children below six years get a nutritious meal daily. Renuka, a strong votary of packaged, fortified food, precipitated matters on May 28 by putting up additional budgetary demands to see her pet plan through.

The letter from the PMO Click Here For Large Picture

The PMO note has now asked Renuka's ministry to rework its demands and focus on providing hot, cooked meals. It asks the ministry to "spell out in detail, with suggested timelines, the dimensions of the proposed pilot project on hot, cooked meals, preferably in those states where hot, cooked meals have not been introduced." What's more, it does not even consider the option of packed, fortified food, and instead underlines the need for "empowering panchayats" to "set up anganwadis (child care centres)" where hot, cooked meals would be provided to children.

Renuka's contention has been that it is better to provide packed food as it is difficult to monitor the quality of food being served in anganwadis. "I cannot allow food to be cooked in unhygienic conditions where the quality of water is not tested. And often lizards and rats are found in the food. The incidence of children dying of diarrhoea is nearly 12 per cent. Besides, fortified snacks have worked well in African countries," the minister told Outlook last month. Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia counters her argument by pointing out that "lizards can also fall into food cooked at home."

The minister has not taken the snub from the PMO lightly. According to sources, a deeply disappointed Renuka had a heated exchange with a senior official in the PMO. Of late, the minister seems to have made it a personal, emotive issue. A detailed questionnaire was faxed to her but there was no response.

Her pique, whether or not justified, is a natural reflex.For, the PMO note has unambiguously asked her ministry to delete references to the issue of supplementary nutrition (or fortified food). Such a policy, it goes on to emphasise, would "transgress the rulings of the Supreme Court", which had in October 2004 set out the manner in which hot, cooked meals should be provided to children—and ruled simultaneously that it was the responsibility of state governments, not contractors, to implement the scheme. The packaged food programme, on the contrary, involves centralised procurement through contractors.

No lunch boxes: Experts, and the PM, say cooked food is best for anganwadi kids

Renuka has all along maintained that state governments have regularly failed to provide meals to children. Hence the need for packaged food. But in a report to the Supreme Court, commissioners on food security had pointed out that only nine states are currently not providing that facility in anganwadis. Her other argument—that subsidised food grain used for such meals may not be available in future—has been ruled out by a group of ministers (GOM) headed by Pranab Mukherjee as a baseless fear.

The way the scheme is envisaged will obviously have to be tied to the budget outlays too. The Planning Commission has consistently held that there can be no substitute for a nutritious, freshly cooked meal, and Montek has gone on record to state this. More recently, with the prime minister expressing concern over malnutrition, there was even a demand for setting up a commission headed by the PM himself to give the required impetus to the ICDS. Senior officials in the PMO have repeatedly said the success of the scheme depends on the integration of the efforts of those who have the mandate to tackle malnutrition with that of local elected bodies. Their view is that the entry of contractors will mean pilferage and corruption.

Quite clearly, the note from the PMO not only seeks a speedy, concerted effort to tackle malnutrition among children, it also attempts to put the lid on the hot, cooked meals versus packaged food controversy. Nutrition experts, the Planning Commission, and now the prime minister, see wholesome freshly cooked meals as the solution for the 40 million undernourished children in the country.

http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20080728&fname=Letters+PMO+%28F%29&sid=1&pn=2