Half the children under five years of age (48 per cent) are stunted and 43 per cent are underweight, according to the National Family Health Survey. Hence it was not inspiring to hear Planning Commission Member Syeda Hameed say last week that the Rs 6,300-crore Integrated Child Services Programme (ICDS), the only feeding programme for pre-school children in over 900,000 anganwadis, was not getting anywhere. The central share of the funding, she said, comes to Re 1 per child
And it is officially known that the programme doesn't reach out to even half the needy children and leaves out the most vulnerable sections. Under the scheme, children below six years are fed a fixed amount of cooked meal