The central government has recently decided that undernourished children should be provided meals of 500 calories instead of 300 calories.
The central government has recently decided that undernourished children should be provided meals of 500 calories instead of 300 calories, as mandated under the Integrated Child Development Services scheme, to combat child hunger and malnutrition.
But the irony is that, of late, children in the city are not even getting their intake of 300 calories per day. Food is not being provided to poor children after the food suppliers said they had not been paid their dues for months on end.
About 500 to 600 mahila mandals (women’s groups) and self-help groups, who supply food to anganwadis (childcare centres) in Mumbai, are grappling with a paucity of funds with the government not reimbursing them. According to one of the suppliers, dues to the tune of Rs4 crore from Mumbai and about Rs15 core from Maharashtra have not been disbursed. The supplier claimed that often officials don’t disburse funds unless they receive a commission.
These mahila mandals, particularly those in Andheri, Jogeshwari, Goregaon, Thane, Ulhasnagar, Bhiwandi and Kalyan, are badly hit by the non-payment of dues. In Maharashtra, there are 72,834 anganwadis, of which some 280 are in Mumbai.
“The meagre amount of Rs1.98 per child is already too little to carry out cooking, packaging and distribution of food,” said a supplier from Andheri.
“And the non-payment of dues for 5-6 months at a stretch makes our job extremely difficult,” he said.
More than 3 lakh children in the city depend on the nutritional supplementation that they receive at the anganwadis. “Many of the suppliers are giving half or even less than the quantity they are supposed to supply,” said anganwadi worker Vasaundhara from Thane.
An anganwadi worker from Goregaon, Dipti Kher, said many children survive on the heavy lunch that they received at the anganwadi. “So proper supply is very important,” she added.
Dr Vijay Satbir Singh, secretary, Women and Child Development Department, said the delay in payment could be because of some local issues and said such complaints would be looked into. “If the allegations are true, we will initiate action against our department officers,” he said. “Some of our officers have complained that bills are not submitted in time.”
Singh added that as per a new central government resolution, the amount per beneficiary would be increased from Rs1.98 to Rs4. “We are waiting for a cabinet sanction to implement it,” he said, adding that there was no paucity of funds.
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