Cash to replace food for 140 mn children

Another 120 mn will need Aadhaar to get free meals

The NDA government is fast moving towards dramatic changes in the two schemes that provide dry rations and hot cooked meals to about 260 million children between the age 0-14 under its flagship Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) and Mid-Day Meal (MDM) scheme.

For about 140 million children in the age group of 0-6 the government has decided to replace the provision of dry ration under ICDS with cash transfers. For another about 120 million children between ages of 6-14 the government has made Aadhaar mandatory to get their daily hot cooked meals under the MDM. A notification was passed on March 1 making Aadhaar mandatory for all children between ages 6-14 studying in standard I to VIII of about 1.2 million government and government aided schools in order to get their free hot cooked meals.

Alongside, the attorney general Mukul Rohtagi informed the Supreme Court on Friday that the government plans to provide cash subsidy directly into mothers’ bank accounts instead of providing dry rations under the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) which caters to children between the age of 1-6. He intervened in an going case before Justice Deepak Misra involving ICDS and said the Union government would file an affidavit before the apex court in four weeks detailing the changes.

His intervention came after the Women and Child Development ministry, which oversees the scheme, amended the regulations for ICDS under the National Food Security Law on February 20 and for the first time provided an option for states to give cash allowance in lieu of rations to children at Anganwadi centres.

Under the MDM scheme the government provides hot-cooked meals to children aged 6-14 in schools on working days and also during summer vacations in drought-affected areas under the MDM scheme.  The ICDS provides, besides other benefits, dry rations as supplementary nutrition to about 140 million children aged 0-6 through about 1.4 million angwandi centres. Together these two schemes are meant to provide food security for all needy children between the age of 0-14. The two schemes along with the public food distribution system come under the National Food Security Act.

While the government has made Aadhaar mandatory for MDM, the Aadhaar-linked cash transfer is to be limited to ICDS, sources in the government said. Senior officials in the human resource development ministry said that cash transfers is not under consideration as replacement for food given to children under MDM. “It was considered once during initial review of the MDM scheme but it is not under consideration and we are not in its favour. Aadhaar has been introduced in order to cut down on pilferage of existing benefits provided to children in schools by central and state government,” one senior government official told Business Standard.

The notification passed specifically for MDM reads, “And whereas the aforesaid Mid-Day Meal scheme offered at schools involves expenditure incurred fully or partly from the Consolidated Fund of India…individuals desirous of availing the benefits under the Scheme offered at the Schools are required to furnish proof of possession of Aadhaar number or undergo Aadhaar authentication.”

Two other sources in the government told Business Standard that the group of secretaries on ‘Health, Sanitation and Urban development’ put together by the Prime Minsiter’s officer had also recommended cash transfers instead of rations under the ICDS scheme. One of them said the government was considering making the cash transfer conditional on mothers ensuring immunisation of children and regular health check-ups.

Aadhaar-linked cash subsidy to replace benefits in kinds under various government schemes and extensive use of Aadhaar in all schemes and services has earlier been mooted in two previous Economic Surveys.

After the passage of Aadhar law, over the past two months the government has moved rapidly to make the unique identity number mandatory in several schemes. The unique identity card has by now been made compulsory for all teachers to draw their salaries under the Sarv Siksha Abhiyan scheme, for cook-cum-helpers under the MDM, for anganwadi workers under ICDS and maternity benefits under yet another programme. The government has recently notified regulations making Aadhaar mandatory for these purposes along with yet others schemes. It had previously made Aadhaar compulsory for public distribution scheme, direct cash transfer for LPG and provident fund.

All the children benefiting from MDM and others now covered under various schemes will have time till end of May-June to at least show proof of application for Aadhaar if they are not already enrolled and in possession of the UID number.

The state governments and respective departments have been told to set up special camps to enrol those who do not have Aadhaar and want to continue to avail benefits and salaries under the central schemes.

In its order dated October 15, 2015 the Supreme Court had reiterated that the “Aadhaar card Scheme is purely voluntary and it cannot be made mandatory till the matter is finally decided by this Court one way or the other.” It had permitted the use of Aadhaar for the public distribution system, LPG subsidy, pensions, and Jan Dhan Yojna.

But the government believes that it had found a route to bypass the court orders with its Aadhaar law and regulations which require beneficiaries of schemes to enrol for Aadhaar if one doesn’t have one even as it reiterates that benefits would not be denied for the lack of the unique identity number. The Apex court is likely to soon hear the case for the first time since the slew of orders making Aadhaar mandatory across schemes of central government. These notifications were passed after a meeting held by the Prime Minister’s office set deadlines for ensuring mandatory use of Aadhaar in several schemes including income tax returns under fixed deadlines.

On March 1, the social justice ministry made Aadhaar mandatory for all its schemes such as the Ambedkar scheme providing subsidy on educational Loans for overseas Studies to OBC and EBC Students. The Unique Identification Authority of India has sent all government departments and state governments its standard format under the new rules for making Aadhaar mandatory where they wish. It has already enrolled about 1.12 billion individuals and it is looking to cover all children between 0-5 age and older people as well to achieve 100 per cent saturation. For children it plans to provide and promote the updation of child’s biometrics after attainment of certain age as biometrics tend to alter between childhood to attainment of adulthood.