The Gujarat High Court has ordered the state government to submit the details of schemes, if any, to identify Self-Help Groups (SHGs) and Mahila Mandals that can buy grains and prepare food for children and pregnant mothers attending the 48,000 aanganwadi centres in the state. The order follows a suo-motu petition that questioned the implementation of several Central schemes for the poor, including why the state government had roped in a...

The farmers need to come out of their traditional mindset and develop business acumen to reap the benefits of food processing that has a lot to offer to the country, says joint secretary, ministry of food processing industries, Government of India, Ajit Kumar. Kumar was in the city to inaugurate one-day orientation training programme on food processing for farmers at then Banaras Hindu University on Sunday. Saying that commercial orientation and awareness...

Anganwadi workers, women’s self-help groupsand accredited social health activists from across the state gathered at the Azad Maidan on Wednesday to protest against the government’s decision of distributing instant Packaged Food in anganwadis as supplementary nutrition. “Anganwadis are supposed to provide fresh, nutritious food to pregnant women and children till six years of age. The government has instead started providing ready-to-eat food packets to them,” said Sonya Gill, president, all India...

India, food safety and standards are neglected topic despite being directly related to public health. According to a survey conducted by Ficci, almost 30% of the respondents, bulk of whom were from the food processing industry, were unaware that Food Safety and Standards Act (FSSA) is mandatory to implement. The respondents were not even aware about the existence of such an Act. “This means that more capacity building and in-depth...

One of the key demands of the Right to Food Campaign for the National Food Security Act is to re-introduce nutritious millets to government food programmes like the public distribution system. Millets like bajra, jowar, kodo, kutki and ragi among hundreds of other varieties have sustained communities for close to 10,000 years in India. Yet, they have been marginalized as food crops since the days of the Green Revolution in...