Scores of malnourished children and infant deaths in and around city are the evidence
Scores of malnourished children and infant deaths in and around the capital even today are glaring evidences of a botched ‘Integrated Child Development Scheme' (ICDS). One beset with administrative flaws, faulty policy and lack of awareness among the poor.
Launched to bring down malnutrition among children below six years and to reduce infant mortality, the scheme has achieved precious little so far.
Lack of infrastructure
While 54 children below the age of one died in city last year, 627 infants passed away in Ranga Reddy due to low birth weight, malnutrition, lack of awareness among pregnant mothers and so on. These figures too, the Health Department officials say, are underreported.
These deaths are happening despite the presence of ‘Anganwadi' centres, which are the main platform for delivering ICDS services. The centres have been set up to provide supplementary nutrition, immunisation and health check-ups to children in slums, yet parents shun them as they lack basic infrastructure.
Malnourishment
While there are 907 ‘anganwadis' across slums in Hyderabad, over 48 per cent, i.e., over 1.30 lakh underprivileged children are malnourished. Situation is worse in Ranga Reddy where little over 50 per cent of poor children, catered to by 2,800 centres (across its urban, semi-rural and rural areas) are below the normal weight.
About 30 per cent of those below normal weight fall under ‘first grade malnourishment', less severe than extreme malnourishment. But doctors said that children in this grade too are under high-risk.
“Children in first grade malnutrition are vulnerable to infections making them susceptible to mortality,” said Dr. P. Sudershan Reddy, senior paediatrician, Niloufer hospital. “These children are also prone to slip into extreme life-threatening malnutrition,” he said.
Bad food
A prime reason for the high rate of malnutrition is that there are no takers for the free supplementary food provided in the form of powder by A.P. Foods. “The powder doesn't boil and children complain of stomach pain on eating dishes cooked with it,” complained Vijaya, a slum-dweller in Bhaglingampally.
Such is the loathing for the powder that if they were made to take it along with the four eggs every 15 days under the government's Supplementary Nutrition Programme (SNP), they throw away the powder. “We enrol in the Anganwadis only for the eggs,” she added.
There are also complaints that even locally cooked food, supplied to children between three to six years at ‘anganwadis' every afternoon often gets spoilt by the time it is served due to the time taken for distribution.
Keywords: ICDS, child development, malnutrition
Schemes involving millions of rupees falter due to the failure in
establishing practical norms.The absence of effective supervision or
accountability reports doom the projects.The interfering of local VIPs
and lack of motivation for the field level staff aggravates the defficiency substantially.The Änganwadi"concept largely deployed in
Kerala would have been the BEST outlet for these schemes but all the
above mentioned malodies cripple the efforts to take off.
The Best choice for Governments is the disbursements and supervision
of the implimentation through the "Kudumbashree"movement which has ben
very successful in Kerala in which Political Interference is not much
effective
With introduction of ICDS scheme into the rural INDIA govt thought it would change the situation of the rural children but the condition of the children has decreased in a deplorable way.Many teachers were no where to be found on the schools.And they only come during inspection time and for taking their monthly salaries.The care takers make the children to sit in the anganwadi and just make them to play games and send them for homes.They who need to provide them a nutritious food are taking away the nutrition for their personal uses,leaving behind the children malnourished. Then what is the need of providing these type of schemes which never look into the betterment of the children.The government must take strict action an the teachers who are following this. They need to make inspections frequently which may increase the condition of children from a state of being malnourished to a state of good health.We also need to co-operate govt for its successful run.
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