Provide cooked mid-day meals: Bombay high court

The Bombay high court has come to the rescue of the malnourished children in Melghat area of Amravati district. The court has directed the state government to provide cooked mid-day meals to children between the ages of six months and three years on a daily basis from June 1, instead of giving dry ration, which used to get over within few days.

The directions came during the hearing of a petition filed by one Purnima Uphadyay, of an NGO Khoj. The petition highlighted the state government decision to abruptly stop several health programs, on going in the area for several years, without giving them a chance of hearing.

The division bench of chief justice Mohit Shah and justice DY Chandrachud in their order passed recently said, “The Supreme Court had, in a November 2001 order, directed state governments to implement the mid-day meal scheme by providing children with a prepared meal. It had also ordered those governments providing dry rations to start giving cooked meals within three to six months of the order.”

The court also directed the government to consider the criterion of weight for age to ascertain the grade of malnutrition and providing treatment at the child treatment centres to children. Instead, the earlier criterion being followed by the state was of weight for height.

The bench observed, “It appears to be obvious that children who are malnourished from their infancy would have stunted height and therefore, applying the parameter of weight for height would be a disadvantage. Therefore, for definite criterion for ensuring that children who are severely or moderately malnourished get appropriate treatment at the Village Child Development Centre or Child Treatment Centre, the basis should be their weight for age.”

Uphadyay informed the court, “In April, itself, 33 children have died in the Melghat area. On one hand the Tribal Development Department is flush with funds for the apparent object of helping the tribal suffering from malnutrition; it wriggles out of its responsibilities as there is no officer holding the post of tribal development officer cum additional collector from Melghat. It is submitted that this post is meant to be filled in from IAS Cadre but the post is lying vacant for the last more than 2 years.”

The bench said, “The government cannot wriggle out of its responsibilities by allowing the post of nodal officer to remain vacant for the last more than two years. We, therefore, expect the state government to appoint a suitable officer for filling up this post by May 31, 2011.” The bench has now adjourned the hearing on the petition till July 22.