States to give nutritional supplements to malnourished children

New Delhi, Aug 11 (UNI) States will provide nutritional supplements of about 300 calories and 8-10 gm protein to severely malnourished children, and 500 calories and 20-25 gm proteinto pregnant women and lactating mothers under the Integrated Child Development Service (ICDS) scheme.

The ICDS scheme, being implemented by the Government, is aimed at reducing the prevalence of severe under-nutrition in children in the 0-6 years age group by 50 per cent and bringing down prevalence of under-weight children under three years from 47 per cent to 40 per cent, by 2007-end.

States have been asked to send regular monthly reports for monitoring. They have been asked to strictly monitor nutritional status of the children using the weight-for-age method and convey the data regarding undernourished children regularly for corrective measures like supply of more nutritional supplements and regular health check-ups and other referral services.

Launched to improve the nutritional and health status of children below the age of six years and of pregnant and lactating mothers, the Government is also making efforts to reduce prevalence of anaemia by 25 per cent and eliminate Vitamin A deficiency as a public health issue.

The ICDS scheme provides a package of services including supplementary nutrition, immunisation, referral services, health check up, pre school non-formal and nutrition and health education through anganwadis, the focal point of delivery of services.

The ICDS scheme has been expanded to 466 additional projects and 1.88 lakh Anganwadis (AWCs) in 2005-06. To ensure coverage of all uncovered habitations/settlements, the Government has also started to give 50 per cent of the expenditure by the states incurred on supplementary nutrition.

In turn, the states have been told to ensure uninterrupted supply of supplementary nutrition as per norms of the scheme.

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