A Mobile App named " BANMALI "

Hindustan Times ( 15 Sept 2016 ) carried following news :

" Pankaja Munde’s dept wants to replace hot meals with ready-to-eat food packets "

Pankaja Munde, is now looking to replace the concept of hot cooked meals

 provided under the Centre’s Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) for

 children under 6 years, with THR-like ready-to-eat premixed food packets.

This means that instead of the “khichdi” (a mix of dal and rice) prepared locally

by village communities or self help groups, anganwadis – government run child 

care centres – will be provided with certain kinds of ready-to-eat packets to 

prepare and serve the children.

If cleared, the state government may once again run foul of the apex court

 orders that have reiterated that children under six should be served hot meals 

prepared locally by village communities or self help groups.

She said there was no question of awarding contracts to any company. “As per

 the Food Security Act, food contracts can only be given to women sansthas, self 

help groups.’’

In the past, the apex court has slammed the state for favouring big contractors

 through self help groups. A lot would depend on how the proposal is finalised 

and how the tender is drafted to award these contracts.

“Our experience with the THR tender is that the state government is keen on

 pushing women self help groups out in the name of hygiene. That’s why they

 have insisted on a fully automated machinery to prepare such food packets.

The hot cooked meal segment has a much larger scope with annual tenders 

worth over thousands of crores. If the concept shifts to these premixes, then

 similar tenders will be issued and the same five to six firms will get the biggest 

chunk of the contracts,’’ said a women self help group member and activist, who

 did not wish to be quoted.

She said that nearly one lakh self-help groups were involved in preparing of 

such meals, who did not stand a chance to continue if the government insisted 

on extrusion technology (fully automated process) and having in-house 

laboratories as in the case of THR contracts.

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I suppose everyone wants to support / encourage self help groups of women

But you have to only visit the kitchens of these groups to convince yourself of

 the terrible hygienic conditions under which the mid-day meals get cooked !

Maharashtra State just does not have the number of Inspectors to inspect 

 88,272  AanganWadis  !

We are talking of health of 86.31 lakh children in Maharashtra alone !

All over the country , there must be SEVERAL  CRORE children covered under ICDS scheme

It would benefit all the States - and the Centre - to consider my suggestion for

 a 

COMPREHENSIVE SOLUTION of malnutrition among children thru

 implementation of Mobile App "  BANMALI " , described below :

SAVING   1.2 MILLION   KIDS

{    http://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2016/06/saving-12-million-kids.html  }

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16  Sept  2016

www.hemenparekh.in / blogs