‘Self-help groups may jeopardise ICDS if work given at one go’

These points have been mentioned in affidavits filed on November 24 in the Gujarat High Court,where the matter has been challenged by Sejal Dand,the court-appointed respondent,and amicus curiae Amit Panchal. The HC has been hearing this and a similar case on food and nutrition schemes for almost three years now.

In its affidavit,the government resists changing this status quo of using contractors,giving several reasons for its stand. The affidavit states that “transferring the work of providing Supplementary Nutrition to local communities/Mahila Mandals in one go would jeopardise the ongoing Food Nutrition Programme in the state of Gujarat initiated in 2007”.

Decentralisation of nutritious diet was advocated by the SC,as these women’s groups — which are formed largely by mothers or relatives of the children in these Anganwadi centres — would learn to prepare wholesome food and emulate it at home. But the government says it cannot decentralise the scheme as “the Department of Women and Child Development has no means to check the quality and quantity of food procured at the local level and instead has to rely on the documents provided by the local SHGs”.

According to Dand,approximately Rs 6.43 crore have been spent on women’s groups for the provision of freshly cooked meals at Rs 2 per day per child and take home rations. On the other hand,the government has spent Rs 410 crore on nutrition premixes sourced from a contractor for pregnant women,lactating mothers,adolescent girls and children between three and six years of age. “There is no question of inviting tenders for giving the contract…when the state…has 91% of AWCs being covered by SHGs and Mahila Mandals. However,over 98% of the budget for availing the food are being expended through the contractor,” said Dand in the affidavit.

Mahila Mandals and food schemes
The move to involve women’s groups in the scheme was taken in August 2009 as a pilot project — worth Rs 9.29 lakh — in Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar. Under this,Matru Mandals (Mothers’ groups) provided breakfast twice a week to the Anganwadi children at Rs 2 per day.

The project was extended to four other districts — Patan,Rajkot,Kutch and Surendranagar — in February this year at the cost of Rs 31.80 lakh. A week later,the scheme was extended to rest of the districts at the cost of Rs 463.58 lakh.

In January,the government ordered that all Anganwadi children in the state be given fruits twice a week,and Matru Mandals were roped in for the Rs 732.90-lakh scheme. As far as the Take Home Ration (THR) scheme was concerned,the government favored a phased implementation.