Pregnant women and lactating mothers, who were so far given ration under the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), will instead be given hot cooked meals from next month. The State government is all set to roll out its ambitious ‘Mathrupoorna’ programme through which one hot meal a day will be served to such women through anganwadi centres from October 2 across the State.
Karnataka is the third State after Andhra Pradesh and Telangana to roll out such a programme, and the government hopes to reach out to 12 lakh women. Meals will be served to pregnant women and for six months after they give birth. The practice of providing ration under the ICDS will cease to exist.
Uma Mahadevan, Principal Secretary, Department of Women and Child Development (DWCD), said the programme aimed to bridge the gap between the recommended dietary allowance and the average daily intake of pregnant women and lactating mothers. “Owing to cultural influences as well as factors such as poverty, the take home ration would be shared among the family. Also, mothers tend to eat last in India families,” she said. The government decided to launch the meal scheme as the DWCD realised that women were not getting adequate nutrition and noted that Karnataka had not made significant improvement in the child development indicators as per the National Family Health Survey 4. The department carried out the scheme on a pilot basis from February 2017 in four taluks — Manvi, H.D. Kote, Jamkhandi, and Madhugiri, covering 36,000 pregnant women and lactating mothers.
The DWCD is hoping that the programme would help increase the gestation weight gain among pregnant women, which will in turn reduce the chances of low birth weight. Districts will be allowed to tweak the menu based on local food preferences, and working women will be able to enrol themselves in anganwadis near their place of work and eat the meal during their lunch break, officials said.
Deepa Cholan, Director, DWCD, said relatives can also pick up the meals in tiffin boxes to be carried back to the beneficiaries. This will be applicable to women who are over eight months pregnant and to women who have given birth, for a period of 45 days after delivery.
Ms. Mahadevan said women would also be given counselling once every week at anganwadis on 30 topics ranging from the importance of breastfeeding during the first six months to complementary feeding as well as early psychosocial stimulation. The department also wants to ensure that pregnant women and lactating mothers consume over 100 iron and folic acid tablets, calcium tablets, and take deworming medicine in the second trimester and get health check-ups and immunisation.
Underage pregnant women to be covered too
Pregnant women who are less than 18 year old too will be allowed to have meals at anganwadis. Deepa Cholan, Director, DWCD, said underage mothers would not be denied the food, but the department would continue its efforts to stop child marriages. She said during the pilot project, the number of underage women who came to eat food was not “significant”.
Anganwadi workers want better facilities before the launch
Anganwadi workers’ associations are demanding that facilities in anganwadis be improved before the programme is implemented. S. Varalakshmi, president of the Karnataka State Anganwadi Workers’ Association, said there was a need to provide extra utensils as well as workers at mini-anganwadis with another helping hand. The department, however, said provisions to step up the infrastructure to carry out the programme were being made.
G.R. Shivashankar, president of the Karnataka State Anganwadi Workers’ Mahamandali, which has 21,000 anganwadi workers, said they would not cooperate in the programme.
Elephant menace
Elephant menace, fear of tigers in some parts and long distances to reach anganwadis maybe some problems involved in the effective implementation of the Mathrupoorna programme in some regions.
Anganwadi staff listed these problems in a Mysuru divisional-level workshop on the implementation of the scheme here on Monday.
An official from Koppa taluk in Chikkamagaluru district said many women who work in coffee plantations and return home only in the evening might miss the benefit of the scheme if an alternative way is not found. Responding to this, Minister Umashree suggested that officers interact with planters and convince them to allow women to go to anganwadi centres to have food during the lunchtime.
Exemption for some?
The Department of Women and Child Development is mulling over allowing “leniency” to some anganwadis to continue the provision of giving take-home ration to pregnant women and lactating mothers. Deepa Cholan, Director, DWCD, said they were still considering this option in “extraordinary situations” in some areas where they were challenges to reach the anganwadis.
