New Delhi: The National Human Rights
Commission on Thursday issued notices to the Centre, states and
union territories on reports of siphoning off of funds
allocated for the Integrated Child Development Services.
The action came after NHRC took suo motu cognizance of
media reports saying that only 40 per cent of the expenditure
on the supplementary nutrition of children under the ICDS
could actually be accounted for at the national level and the
rest 60 per cent of the expenditure could not be justified by
the states.
The media reports were based on the Planning
Commission of India`s review of the ICDS health programme
which was launched to reduce severe to moderate malnutrition
among children in the 6 to 72 months age group.
According to the reports, the NHRC said only 41 per
cent of the children in the eligible group, 38 per cent of
the eligible pregnant and lactating women and 10 per cent of
the eligible adolescent girls were registered under the
programme.
Among these registrations, only 64 per cent of the
children were receiving supplementary nutrition on an average
for 192 days in a year as against 300 days of supplementary
nutrition mandated by the Supreme Court under the ICDS
programme.
It has also been found that the massive unspent funds
meant for child nutrition are the highest for Assam at 95 per
cent, Bihar and Rajasthan at 71 per cent each, Uttarakhand at
72 per cent, Madhya Pradesh at 64 per cent and Punjab at 56
per cent, the NHRC said.
PTI
