-Hindustan Times An audit report by the accountant general has blamed lack of health policy to poor management of various government schemes for food, nutrition, sanitation, hygiene, health, education and overall welfare for AES deaths in Bihar. Bihar does not have a health policy and its budget also does not focus on any specific area of attention in health sector despite the scourge of acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) for over a...

-The Hindu Women unwilling to consume iron-folic acid tablets could opt for alternative. GUWAHATI: A drive for good nutrition among pregnant women and Children in a southern Assam district has been given a gooseberry candy twist. This follows a report that the targeted groups find the prescribed iron-folic acid tablets repulsive. According to the 2015 National Family Health Survey, 47.2% of the women of reproductive age in Hailakandi were anaemic. The district, thus,...

-The Times of India GHAZIABAD: As many as 15 private hospitals in the Ghaziabad district of UP have agreed to provide free treatment and food to 2,425 Children suffering from acute malnutrition, officials said. The administration has set a target to pull out the Children from acute malnutrition (red category) by September 30. A private hospital has already agreed to work. Now, 14 more hospitals have been roped in. Gaurav Pandey, spokesperson,...

-Livemint.com With sliding incomes, rural households are struggling to stay afloat and are curtailing consumption of essential goods Vidisha/ New Delhi: Ram Babu, who runs a hole-in-the-wall grocery store in Nateran village nestled deep inside Madhya Pradesh’s Vidisha district, doubles up as a daily wager. However, with villagers cutting on small purchases, sales in his shop are down. Moreover, landless households dependent on wage labour are unable to find work—a day of...

-The Times of India LUCKNOW: With the salt-and-roti expose in Mirzapur embroiling the mid-day meal scheme in controversy, the government will conduct a quality audit of food served to Children. This will be conducted by external agencies, including Govind Ballabh Pant Social Science Institute, Lucknow University and Indian Institute of Management-Lucknow. A similar audit in 2016 by Giri Institute of Development Studies (GIDS), Lucknow, focused only on two districts. This time, the...