PRINCE KUMAR
Ranchi, Oct 30: The Jharkhand government has failed to provide the Supplementary Nutrition given to the most vulnerable under Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) for the past one year.
The main challenge arrived due to the process of reimbursement to the self-help groups that provide the THR or Take Home Food to the state’s 38432 Anganwadi centres.
Social Welfare Director Anjaneyulu Dodde accepted the concern partially and said that the cabinet has decided to go back on the previous model of distribution.
“The decision has been taken by the cabinet way back but the work is under process and in the coming future, we will switch from SHG model to taking out a tender for the distribution,” Dodde said.
“The fluctuating price of the different food items which are procured from the market by the self-help groups have played a significant role in many areas of the state because of which the distribution was disrupted,” an insider said.
“Increase in the transportation cost has also played a crucial role in the distribution as the SHGs did not get the reimbursement for that,” an insider further said.
In Jharkhand, 11.26 lakh children are in the age group six months to three years and 15.78 lakh children in three to six years of age group, and 7.21 lakh pregnant and lactating mothers which are supposed to be covered by 38, 432 Anganwadi Centers.
Under the ICDS Scheme children between the age of 6 months to 6 years and pregnant and lactating women are provided Supplementary Nutrition, Pre-school non-formal education, nutrition and health education, Immunization, Health check-up and referral services through Anganwadi services as well as through Health Department.
“The government needs to allocate a revolving fund like NREGA for implementation of this scheme rather than running it on reimbursement model,” an expert said.
During the Raghubar Das government’s regime, private companies’ involvement in the supply of THR or Take Home Food was cancelled and it was given to Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society under the Rural Development Department who later trained SHGs for this purpose.
