Nutritious food remains elusive at Anganwadi centres: CESS study

Hyderabad: The food being supplied at Anganwadi centres across both Telangana and AP is severely short of nutritional levels as prescribed by the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), a study by the Centre for Economic and Social Studies (CESS) has revealed.

In its report ‘Contours of Maternal and Child Nutrition-2015’, the CESS pointed out that governments’ inappropriate focus on expansion of the Anganwadi centres, almost at the cost of neglecting quality, have severely impacted the nutritional levels.

Due to reduction of governments’ investments in ICDS programme, the officials at ground level are misusing the supplies, and not recording the required inputs which are significant to study the implementation of ICDS, the study observed.

It further found that there is lack of focus on implementing ICDS key features, resulting in inappropriate distribution of resources.

The report recommends authorities concerned to improve community-level monitoring and evaluation system for strict implementation of the programme. During the release of the report here Friday, Gautam N Yadama, Professor, Washington University lamented over the malnutrition and stunting levels among the children in India even after 41 years of the introduction of Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS).

“Malnutrition has already affected the development of children both physically and mentally in India. It is high time to reverse this trend,” he said.

The study was carried out in Telangana, AP, and Karnataka with the coordination with respective governments.