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Close on the heels of the damning hunger and malnutrition (HUNGaMA) report, which found 42 per cent children below age five across India underweight and 59 per cent children stunted, comes another report on the state of nutrition among children in Karnataka state.
Over 1.2 million children in the state in the age group of 0-6 years are malnourished and underweight, says a government report submitted to the Karnataka High Court on January 19. The report was filed in response to a public interest petition being heard by the court.
Civil society groups in Karnataka blame packaged food supplied to many anganwadis under the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme for the poor nutritional status of Karnataka's children. The Naandi Foundation which surveyed 112 rural districts to prepare the HUNGaMA report, incidentally, promotes packaged food like biscuits for children.
Since November 2010, NGOs in Karnataka have been campaigning for replacing packaged food given to pre-school children at anganwadi centres across the state with locally prepared hot-cooked meals.
Packaged food makes children sick
Instead of using the community self-help groups for providing hot cooked meals at anganwadis, in May 2007, the government of Karnataka entered a contract with a Tamil Nadu-based private company, Christy Friedgram Industry, for supplying packaged food. Since then, children attending anganwadis are being given packets of dry food mixture to which hot water is added before consumption.
NGOs working with anganwadis say children detest this food. At many of the anganwadis, children complained of stomach pain, diarrhoea, nausea, vomiting and headache after consuming the food. “People there are digging pits and throwing food into it because there was so much supply and the children would not eat it. The anganwadis cannot refuse to take the food from the suppliers,” says Kavita Ratna, director of Concerned for Working Children, a non-profit. She adds that mothers take their children home before the anganwadis serve the meals because they are spending more money on the children’s health later on.
NGOs associated with the Right to Food Campaign wrote letters to the Karnataka High Court in 2011, highlighting the state of malnourished children in the state and the court took notice of that and the petition was filed in court on October 2011.
Malnourishment highest in Raichur district
While the court case continues, a report was filed on December 2011 in the Supreme Court by advocate Clifton D Rozario, advisor to commissioners of the Supreme Court in the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) v Union of India case, after visiting Raichur district in October 2011. The district has the maximum number of malnourished children in the state (see box). Most of the children suffering from severe malnutrition belong to the Schedule Caste community of Madiga sub-caste and incidence of malnourishment is higher among girls.
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“By next week we are changing the food list at all anganwadis. Ragi kheer, rice kheer, green gram and multi-grain flour will now be given to these centres,” says Usha Patwari, joint director, ICDS, department of women and child development in Karnataka. Most of the food added under the programme will be ready-to-eat, that is, hot water will be added to it. Rest of the food will be cooked at the centres for which gas stoves will be provided. But out of the 63,377 anganwadi centers, the government has so far provided gas cylinders to only 35,000 centres.
Though the contract with Christy Friedgram Industry is valid till May, Patwari added that by March, the preparation of the food will be handled by independent self-help groups (SHGs). “The company provided only assistance to the SHGs like installing machines, providing infrastructure and training. The food was always prepared by the self-help groups,” she claims.
But the non-profits working in the state are not convinced. “Once the present contract ends, we are afraid that it will be re-issued in some other form. The groups fighting for these children will have to be alert,” says Nina Nayak, chairperson, Karnataka state commission for protection of child rights.
“Under the contract, the company is allowed to spend Rs 4 per child. In one of the anganwadis, the local panchayat started cooking using locally produced food with the help of self-help groups and the cost for feeding per child came to Rs 2,” says Ratna.
Over 1.4 million children between three and six years old get food at the anganwadis in Karnataka.