-Scroll.in The government has made the school mid-day meal contingent on being enrolled in the identity programme. India has the highest number of malnourished children in the world. You would imagine people in the government would be having sleepless nights thinking of ways to improve the nutrition and health of children. As it turns out, the government believes children need identity numbers more badly than they need food. The government has decided that...

-Scroll.in Possibly to woo voters, the state government started the Hausla Poshan Yojana last year that lasted only two months. On a cold January morning in Ayadhnagar village in Uttar Pradesh’s Hapur district, a group of 10 children huddled around a bonfire outside their anganwadi centre. Despite the warmth of the fire, they shivered. The bare and dusty centre did not have mats for them to sit on and some of...

-Livemint.com FSSAI says it has set up a scientific panel on ‘food fortification and nutrition’ to help fight malnutrition in the country New Delhi: The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) on Tuesday said it has set up a scientific panel on “food fortification and nutrition” to help fight malnutrition in the country. On 2 February, the regulator notified a draft plan to make supply of fortified food mandatory for government-supported...

-IANS Kolkata: Lack of policy directions for ensuring quality implementation of programmes makes the Union Budget 2017-18 allocations to ailing core social sectors like education and health inadequate in delivering the benefits, experts say. Schemes like Swachh Bharat-Urban and the National Social Assistance Programme saw no increase, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan got a mere 4.4 per cent rise in allocation, while the Integrated Child Development Services got an enhancement of about five per...

-Economic and Political Weekly Rajesh Mishra (rajeshnipccd@yahoo.com) is working with the National Institute of Public Cooperation and Child Development, Ministry of Women and Child Development, GoI, Indore.   A research study conducted in three tribal districts— Alirajpur, Barwani and Khandwa—of Madhya Pradesh, based on a sample of 294 women with their last child in the age-group of six months–five years analyses the status and determinants of malnutrition and child death. Despite certain infant...