Let them eat biscuits!

How can packaged food be better than a hot, cooked meal for malnourished children? Hardnews questions

Tanu Sehgal Delhi

Biscuits are snacks - right? The Human Resources and Development (HRD) ministry in Delhi categorically ruled out biscuits to be served as mid-day meals to children of primary schools. Soon, the formidable biscuit manufacturers' lobby, which includes companies like ITC, Britannia, Parle and Hindustan Levers, roped in a relative of a central minister and scores of parliamentarians, to palm off biscuits as lunch.
The biscuit lobby was not fazed. They zeroed in on the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) instead. The ICDS provides nutrients to children between 0-6 years. Their aggressive lobbying has been opposed by civil society activists who do not want biscuits and other micro-nutrients to replace hot-cooked food in Anganwadi (government-run crèche) centres. The biscuit barons are driven by the desire to climb the Rs 52,000 crore gravy train that would give them access to a huge market. It would also provide them immunity from any kind of government ban in the event of a wheat crisis - which seems to be looming large on the country. In the past, whenever there has been a foodgrain crisis, biscuit manufacture is routinely stopped.
The lobby has now begun to aggressively cajole and lobby with the Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD) to push biscuits to feed millions of children suffering from malnutrition. Interestingly, WCD Minister Renuka Choudhary did a Marie Antoinette, the infamous French Queen who had remarked about the country's poor peasants, "If they don't have bread, let them eat cake." Choudhary felt that the children could not be given hot food as there was no infrastructure or clean drinking water for cooking. Her contention was rebutted by NC Saxena, food commissioner appointed by the Supreme Court (SC). He said, "Lakhs of children eat hot-cooked meals everyday. The water provided by the residents near the Anganwadis is used for cooking. Reasons the ministry gives in favour of packaged food is not valid."
Civil Rights activists involved in bringing transparency in the ICDS have been alleging a monumental scam in the manner in which it is being executed. Private contractors, in their reckoning, who were supplying food to these centres are still retained by many state governments even after being banned by the SC. Hardnews, in the October 2007 issue, had exposed the Panjiri mafia in Uttar Pradesh that has been supplying 'nutritious' food supplements that is unfit even for animals. There are scores of such examples of corruption in rest of the country. The biscuit lobbyists have taken advantage of this rampant corruption to push their case.
Confusion about how nutrition should be delivered to the children between 0-6 years has been causing a setback to the plans of providing food to a large mass of people suffering from extreme malnutrition. A national family health survey had stated that 80 per cent of children in the age group of 6-35 months are anaemic and 46 per cent of the children are suffering from malnutrition.
A UNICEF report deflated the country's pretensions of being a superpower ready to take on the world when it stated - "About 55 million or one third of the world's underweight children under five live in India. Malnutrition is the underlying cause of up to 50 per cent of (neonatal) under-five deaths. About 8.3 million out of 19 million infants in the developing world with low birth weight are in India. The country has 46 per cent of malnourished children."
The government of India and the SC have realised how important it is to provide nutritional supplements to infants so that future generations are healthier.
The nexus of contractors and bureaucrats does not spare a thought for the food that is prepared for the children. The same is the case with the mid-day meal scheme, but the government, save for making perfunctory noises, has not been able to make a dent in the control exercised by those who are methodically siphoning off funds meant for ICDS. Even the National Advisory Council (NAC), which was earlier headed by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, had expressed apprehensions about the widespread corruption in the ICDS, but their concerns were not adequately addressed.
Time and again, civil society activists and court commissioners have asked the Ministry for WCD to build and enlarge Anganwadis to provide home-cooked food, rather than go for packaged food.
As per an SC order of 2001, each child is entitled to a cooked meal that contains 300 calories and 8-12g of protein per day for a minimum of 200 days a year. A malnourished child is entitled to 600 calories and 16-20g of protein. Experts feel that this is not all. Apart from nutrition, the food should be tasty too. Nutritionist Sakshi Chawla, Fortis Hospital, Noida, says, "Biscuits certainly cannot meet the requirements of hungry children. Cereals, daliya, khichdi, rice and daal constitute a good meal for poorly-fed children." Though the planning commission has allocated huge sums of money, malnutrition in the age group 0-6 years has declined only one per cent in the last eight years. The NFS-3 (national family health survey) also mentions the poor state of children under the age of six and the slow progress.
Recently, the mid-day meal scheme has been extended to the upper primary classes in 3,479 educationally backward blocks in all government and government-aided schools. But the need to provide cooked food and not only supplementary food to the children of 0-6 years is more crucial. Besides, the government should also be tackling issues such as hygiene in these crèches and schools.
Through anganwadis, the government is able to provide food to 120 million children everyday. If two women take charge of preparing food for a group of 25 children, the estimated number of women employees goes up. The basic thinking behind employing Anganwadi workers was to provide employment to poor women who could also provide good food to their own children. A second Anganwadi worker is also essential to provide adequate care to children below the age of three years along with food supplements and quality pre-school education for those in the age group of 3-6 years. Thus, there is wide scope of employment for poor women in rural areas. Sayeda Hameed, member of Planning Commission, says, "By employing women in Anganwadis, we are also trying to break down caste barriers. There is also a huge difference between food cooked by human hands and manufactured food. Quality issues would always be there in the case of packaged food." The ministry, in trying to push biscuits and other packaged supplements, has chosen to overlook all these advantages.
Harsh Mander, Special Commissioner appointed by SC for ICDS, says, "The best food is a balanced, nutritious, hot-cooked meal. In case of packaged and manufactured food the chances of leakages are greater. Somewhere, we need to draw the line. Decentralisation of the system is important."
Nobel Prize winner Amartya Sen too has opposed the idea of feeding the malnourished with snacks and biscuits. Anup Shrivastava, lawyer with Human Rights Law Network, concludes, "We are planning to go to court and raise the issue of providing packaged food to children. The SC and the Planning Commission have mentioned that there will be no role of contractors and only cooked food should be allowed to children under the ICDS. Renuka Choudhary is still planning to go ahead with providing packaged food to some centres. This will be contempt of court and she will have to face the consequences."