Quality testing for food & beverages supplied for the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) may be outsourced in three months or a third party evaluation system may be put in place, a senior Government official said here on Thursday.
These are part of the efforts being made by the Ministry of Women and Child Development to strengthen the ICDS, which has been pulled up by a Supreme Court panel after reports of sub-standard food being provided to under-nourished children aged 0-6 in some States.
The Government may also come out with new guidelines on recruitment of Anganwadi workers as well as for engagement of civil society organisations under the ICDS, Shreeranjan, Joint Secretary in the Ministry, said at a workshop for ICDS officers from various States here.
He said the Finance Ministry was also likely to give the required clearances for hiring technical consultants and block-level functionaries.
Earlier, the Minister for Women & Child Development, Krishna Tirath, launched a World Bank-assisted ICDS Systems Strengthening and Nutrition Improvement Project.
The Rs 2,893 crore project aims at improving child development and nutritional outcomes for children in 200 ‘high-burden’ districts over seven years, in which the World Bank’s share is Rs 2,025 crore.
To be implemented in two phases, the project will initially cover selected districts in Odisha, Uttarkhand, along with pilots in the Delhi-NCR region. It will offer technical assistance to State and Central units to strengthen and expand monitoring and evaluation, and put in place an improved management information system.
Tirath expressed concern that 43 per cent children under 5 years of age and 40 per cent under three children were underweight in India and hoped that ICDS nutrition services and provisions of maternity benefits, which are part of the National Food Security Bill, would get a leg-up once it is passed.
Onno Ruhl, World Bank Country Director for India, said the project would support the Government’s efforts in building the necessary institutional capacity and systems needed to improve nutrition in the targeted groups of mothers and children.
aditi.n@thehindu.co.in