Another ineffective diet plan for anganwadi

ICDS will flout a Supreme Court order by serving packaged food to children. (photo courtesy: Shubhankar Chakravorty)

By Antara Sengupta

BANGALORE (Feb. 9)—The seven food items that Karnataka State is adding to the anganwadi diet will not help combat malnutrition among children, according to nutritionist Dr. Jayshree Pandarkar, CIIMS Hospital in Nagpur.

The food items will include wheat flour, ragi, pulyogare mix, rice, coconut masala mix and tuar dal. Currently they receive rice, sambhar and kesaribath. Only a few anganwadi receive milk.

“Milk is an integral part of the child’s diet. Digestive system of malnourished children is weak and they require milk in some form or the other preferably butter milk which is easy to digest,” Dr. Pandarkar said.

The Integrated Child Development Service (ICDS) is adding the food items to improve the malnutrition index of the state which is very low according to a report prepared by Clifton D’Rozario, state adviser to the Supreme Court commissioner on the right to food. The food at anganwadi centers is mostly wasted because children do not like the taste of it. This is leading to an increase in the malnutrition cases in Karnataka, according to the report.

The children will be provided with different food items in the coming week and the anganwadi will select the two items that the children choose, which will be served to them on alternative days in the future.

According to an order passed by the Supreme Court dated April 22, 2009, aganwadi centers should give hot cooked meals to the children. The ICDS, by serving packaged food items like coconut masala mix and pulyogare mix, will be again violating the order.

Dr. Pandarkar added that nutritionists from around the country say that though milk contains only 3 to 4 grams of protein per 100-milliter glass, it supplies essential nutrition. Milk is also high in calories, so not consuming milk from an early age will eventually lead to malnutrition in children, she said.

“Milk is not a part of the anganwadi food. It is served only in regions where children are excessively malnourished for example, Raichur, in Karnataka,” said, Usha Patwari, joint director of ICDS. “We have proposed the inclusion of milk to the Central government, but it is still awaiting response from the finance department.”