Eleventh Five Year Plan

Nutrition and Social Safety Net 141define ‘poor’ for PDS purposes as much larger thancurrent Planning Commission estimates of thenumber of poor, and exclude altogether the residual‘non-poor’. If the current allocation of 35 kg perhousehold per month continues, the present PDSofftake (rice + wheat) of about 40 million tonneswould meet PDS requirements of nearly 10 crorehouseholds, that is, roughly 60% more householdsthan those defined to be poor by current officialpoverty estimates.• The effectiveness of the system can also be improvedby better management with the help of IT. Computerizationof PDS operations and introduction of aunique ID-based Smart Card System would helpin addressing the issues related to bogus ration cards,diversion of foodgrains, etc. The Eleventh Planwill therefore focus on improving the deliverymechanisms and the monitoring arrangementsbased on IT.• There is also a need to make concerted efforts forminimizing the operational costs of the FCI fromthe present high levels through better managementpractices so that major part of the food subsidyactually accrues to the beneficiaries.• Attention should also be given to streamlining andstandardizing the State level taxes on procurementof foodgrains. Decentralized procurement will befurther encouraged and extended to other Stateswith potential for procurement. It is also necessaryto strengthen both domestic and international tradein foodgrains by means of appropriate changes intrade policies.4.1.65 The centralized system involving FCI’s stabilizationoperations would need to be strengthened. Thiswould be helped if FCI is relieved of having to operatethe system involving differential prices (i.e. betweenBPL and APL prices). The total projected GBS for theEleventh Plan for the Department of Food and PublicDistribution is Rs 614 crore (at 2006–07 prices) andRs 694 crore (at current prices).MALNUTRITION: ADDRESSING IT THROUGH AREVAMPED ICDS4.1.66 The ICDS, which has been in existence for overthree decades, was intended to address the problemof child and maternal malnutrition, but has clearly hadlimited impact. Child malnutrition has barely declinedat all in a decade and a half, anaemia among womenand children has actually risen (see Annexure 4.1.3)and a third of all adult women were undernourishedat the end of 1990s and also in 2005–06. It has also hadlimited coverage. Therefore, the answers are increasingcoverage to ensure rapid universalization; changingthe design; and planning the implementationin sufficient detail that the objectives are not vitiatedby the design of implementation. Besides, all itsoriginal six services have to be delivered fully forthe programme to be effective: (i) supplementarynutrition programme (SNP), (ii) immunization,(iii) health check-up, (iv) health and nutrition education,(v) referral services, and (vi) PSE.4.1.67 First, the ICDS has to be universalized. Second,the current scheme does not focus on 0–3 year children.But malnutrition sets in in utero and is likelyto intensify during the 0–3 year period, if not addressed.In fact, this window of opportunity neverreturns in the lifetime of the child. A child malnourishedduring 0–3 years will be marred physicallyand mentally for life. The design of the scheme hasto address this problem frontally. This has severalimplications:• Mother’s malnutrition and its knock-on effects onchild malnutrition: Malnutrition begins in utero, asIndian mothers on average put on barely 5 kg ofweight during pregnancy. This is a fundamentalreason underlying the LBW problem. They shouldput on at least 10 kg of weight, which is the averagefor a typical African woman. Middle class Indianwomen tend to put on well over 10 kg weight duringpregnancy. But this is not the only problem;LBW is also partly explained by low BMI of womenin general, prior to their becoming pregnant. Smallwomen (who are small before they become pregnant)give birth to small babies. In 1998–99 as muchas 36% of all Indian women (48% in Orissa andChhattisgarh) had a below normal BMI; the sharehad barely dropped to 33% in 2005–06 (accordingto NFHS-3).• Breastfeeding in the first hour: Within the first hourof birth, the infant must be breastfed. Only 23% ofIndian babies were breastfed within the first hour