NGOs sought to monitor child nutrition projects

The state government is seeking out non-governmental organisations (NGOs) or corporate bodies to monitor several programmes launched by the department of women and child welfare to ensure proper nutrition.

Principal secretary to the woman and child development department, Karnataka, Amita Prasad told reporters in Dharwad at the weekend that the department had launched two programmes - Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) and Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) to ensure that the overall development of the children and the expecting mothers. Recently, under the ICDS, malnutrition component has been incorporated and a new plan has been designed to ensure nutrition in the children particularly those within the age of six years.

However, due to a shortage of staff in the department, it has been decided to rope in NGOs and corporate bodies interested to take up the intervention and monitoring of the nutritional programmes.

Any NGO interested to partner with the department for the successful implementation of the scheme can approach the district-level authorities and spell out their plan.

In Dharwad district, the Deshpande Foundation has partnered the department for the implementation of the nutritional programme. The parent department would act as a nodal authority and would provide the assistance required for the NGO, while the representatives would design the plan which is best suited for the local area and work on it, she added.

Referring to the Ksheera Bhagya scheme, the flagship programme of the Congress government in the state, Amita stated that after the launch of this programme, there has been a dip in the percentage of children identified as malnourished. As per the latest statistics, there were 56,000 children suffering from malnu- trition and now this has come down to 37,000. In Dharwad district, over 2,896 children were identified as malnourished as on April, 2013 and now this figure has dipped to 1,663.

If monitoring activities are effectively taken up, there is every possibility of making the state free of malnutrition, she added. Replying to a query, Anita stated that malnutrition is prevalent more in north Karnataka than in the southern part of the state. One of the reasons is early marriages and lack of information regarding breast feeding. Women residing in rural areas too have stopped breast feeding the newborn. This is leading to malnutrition among children from a very young age.

Hence, the department has decided to leave no stone unturned to take the support of private players to create awareness among the rural populace and see that the government welfare schemes reach the beneficiaries at the right time.