-Frontline The Central government's proposal to hand over the supply of supplementary nutrition to NGOs in the name of "community participation" is surely an invitation for private profiteering on the back of this supposedly public scheme. ENSURING safe and healthy conditions for the reproduction of the population is obviously the most fundamental requirement of any society. So the progress of a society can be determined (and indeed is routinely judged) by the...

-The Hindustan Times It now seems increasingly unlikely that Parliament will consider the National Food Security Bill during this budget session. In a land which for centuries suffered devastating famines, where chronic hunger continues to stalk more than 200 million people, and which is home to every third malnourished child on the planet, this would be one more sad betrayal of the country's indigent millions, a reminder of how little they...

-The Hindu India has registered higher infant and child mortality rates than Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Further the country’s position on the measure of the percentage of underweight and severely underweight children during the period 2006-10 was more than twice than that in the Sub-Saharan African region. This was revealed in the Comptroller and Auditor General of India’s performance audit of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme — Union Ministry of...

-DNA Funds meant for health and nutrition of children are being spent on procuring fax machines, photocopiers, gas stoves and cookers. Adding salt to injury is that all these gadgets are lying idle and rusting, due to lack of electricity, telephone lines and for want of gas connections. The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) which audited the performance of Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme worth Rs. 15,460 crore annuallyhas found shortfall...

-PTI State governments have irregularly diverted funds aggregating to Rs 57.82 crore from the central government's flagship Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) to activities not permitted under the programme, a CAG audit has found. In its report on the ICDS for 2012-13, tabled in the Parliament today, the CAG criticised the ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD) for "inadequacy" in monitoring systems under the scheme to combat child malnutrition. The report said...