Politics of Malnutrition
Dr Arvind Kumar
The race for grabbing power at the Centre in the current ongoing Lok Sabha election is getting brisk. However, the issue of malnourished children in India has received almost negligible attention in the election discourse of political parties and candidates. The Global Hunger Index, released in October 2013, placed India among a group of countries with ‘alarming’ levels of hunger, figuring at the bottom of the heap, below China, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and several in sub-Saharan Africa. Key interventions to boost nutrition levels include the targeted public distribution system (TPDS), Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) and the school midday meal scheme (MDMS).
Despite increased food production and procurement for TDPS, food insecurity persists owing to multifarious problems like pilferage, bureaucratic empathy, vested interests and lack of infrastructure at the anganwadi centres (AWCs). Apart from increased allocations for the ICDS programme, the AWCs suffer from irregularities such as insufficient monitoring, suspected misappropriation of supplies, lack of basic amenities like safe drinking water and sanitation, badly-trained anganwadi workers and shortfall in expenditure on supplementary nutrition, which meant lower per beneficiary expenditure. In order to combat the problem of malnutrition effectively, the food security Act, which currently focuses on rice and wheat, should also include higher procurement of millets, pulses, fruits and vegetables.
