The Karnataka Rajya Anganwadi Noukarara Sangha has demanded that the State government roll back its decision to change nutrient food mixture provided to inmates of anganwadis and to pregnant women in villages and resume providing local nutrient food mixture as earlier to overcome the problem of under nourishment of children and pregnant women.
District president of sangha Gouramma Patil led a protest of members of Balavikas Samiti, supervisory committee members and anganwadi workers inside the zilla panchayat office complex here on Friday and submitted a petition to the Chief Executive Officer of the zilla panchayat.
Ms. Patil said that based on the recommendations of the N.K. Patil committee appointed by the High Court of Karnataka to look into malnourishment of children and pregnant women, the State government had introduced the practice of supplying mixture of locally available tur dal, green gram, groundnut, jaggery, rice, wheat, Bengal gram and sugar.
This not only helped improve the health of malnourished children admitted in the anganwadis but also of pregnant women.
However, she said, the State government changed the nutrient food supplied to anganwadis by introducing a mixture of ragi, soya and wheat payasa, rice kheer, navadanya kheer, multigrain chapatti flour, and others.
Although these mixtures were highly nutrient, people of the region, particularly children and pregnant women, were not used to eating ragi and soya-mixed nutrient food.
Children in the anganwadis rejected the ragi and soya-mixed nutrient food. Pregnant women too did not use these nutrients supplied to them in their houses.
She said that the intake in anganwadis also came down sharply after the new nutrients were supplied to children.
Ms. Patil demanded that the government revert to the old nutrients consisting of tur dal, green gram, groundnut, jaggery, rice, wheat, Bengal gram and sugar. She also demanded that the government not use the services of anganwadi workers for any work other than maintenance of children in the anganwadis.