Bal Amrutham falls short of aimed objective

The scheme enjoys high coverage, but suffers from stock unavailability and intra-household sharing

Telangana’s Bal Amrutham, a ration programme instituted to fill nutritional gaps among children while weaning them from lactation, enjoys high coverage but suffers from stock availability and intra-household sharing, a recently published study claims.

Bal Amrutham is executed by the Department for Women, Children, Disabled and Senior Citizens in Telangana. The scheme aims to provide adequate prescribed nutrition to children aged between 7 months and 36 months, who are being weaned. Children are given 2.5 kg of ration comprising a preparation of roasted wheat, Bengal gram, milk powder, sugar and oil besides being fortified with vitamins and minerals.

According to the study published this week in the journal

PLOS One , around 93.7 percent of caregivers who were surveyed had heard about the scheme, but just over half of the 1,077 children surveyed reported receiving ration regularly. However, about 86 per cent reported having received it at least once. Indicating that the coverage of the scheme was high, but targeted children were unable to avail nutrition, the study found that supply of ration to Anganwadi centres was irregular. The ration is procured by Telangana Foods and later distributed to Anganwadi centres. The programme, like many others, suffered from bifurcation blues and was caught in a resource-sharing dispute between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Officials of the department concerned said those issues have now been addressed.

“Until May this year, non-payment of dues to the supplier had affected supply. However, the State has paid the dues and is now paying the supplier regularly to ensure regular supply,” said K.S.R. Lakshmi, Joint Director (Schemes).

The study had also identified a second barrier to effective implementation of the scheme. The authors said sharing of ration within the household was a barrier that could be addressed through larger portions and improving awareness about adequate nutrition for growing children. Despite the sharing, the targeted children could avail as much as 60 percent of their nutrient demand, the study found.