Child welfare: SC raps govt, sets deadlines

The government had passed a series of orders on ICDS, but the ground reality reflects non-seriousness on the part of the government. The court today set new deadlines: All AWCs that were sanctioned in the year 2005 (1.88 lakh) must be operationalised by June 30, 2007; the anganwadis (1.02 lakh) that were sanctioned in 2006 must be made operational by this September.

Almost 5,000 children below five die every day in India. Three fourth of them die before they reach the age of one, and almost half, before they are 28 days old. India’s performance has been especially poor in reducing malnutrition among children, with 46 per cent of children under the age of three being underweight.

The programme has not been expanded. Out of the desired 14 lakh centres, according to the Government’s own data, only 10.5 lakh have been sanctioned, only 7.81 lakhs are operational, and only 6.78 lakh centres are providing supplementary nutrition.

The next date for hearing has been set for July 10, 2007 and the state governments have been asked to file affidavits informing the court of the progress in operationalisation.

The court in its judgment on December 13, 2006 (in the case of PUCL vs. Union of India) directed the Government of India to sanction and operationalise 14 lakh AWCs by December 2008, ensure that population norms for setting up new AWCs are not revised upward, extend all services of ICDS to every child under the age of six, all pregnant women and lactating mothers and all adolescent girls. It also ordered an allocation of Rs 2 per child per day for supplementary nutrition out of which the Centre shall contribute Rs1 per child per day.

Most of these directions were a reiteration of the orders passed by the Supreme Court regarding ICDS in 2001 and later in 2004.

In this order, the court also directed the chief secretaries of the nine states to personally appear in the court to explain why the previous orders in relation to ICDS were not being complied with.