From Yaqoob* in India
In August, there was great rejoicing in India as its space agency (ISRO) landed a space craft on the south pole of the moon. No country has achieved this feat before. Social media and papers were replete with praise, summarised by the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath Yogi[1];
“Successful soft landing of Chandrayaan-3 is a powerful display of capabilities and power of new India. Under the Prime Minister’s visionary leadership and guidance, ISRO scientists did what no one could do.”[2] (One wonders what ‘leadership and guidance’ the venerable PM gave the space scientists in their lunar quest, but that’s another discussion.)
The same week as all this was going on, we were struggling with a very different issue. Near to the slum in which we live and work is a small colony of huts, in which the vast majority of children are underweight, some were quite alarmingly so![3] Why such prevalence of underweight children? It’s pretty simple really – those children just aren’t getting enough nutritious food to eat. Interestingly, in such a context of malnourishment, parents sometimes don’t even notice their children being underweight. Compared to other children in their neighbourhood, they’re about normal!
Given this situation, we applied for a government feeding centre (‘anganwadi’) to begin in the colony. Under Sct 5(1)a of the Right to Food Act (2012)[4], the central government has a responsibility to provide such a feeding centre for every child under the age of 6. A Supreme Court order makes it even more specific – obliging the government to begin a feeding centre when there are 40 or more children (under 6) in a colony. We gathered a list of 43 children such children, together with their parents’ names, and were ready to apply.
However, as with many things in India, the process for submitting such applications is far from straightforward. First, we got the application signed by the local elected representative, then submitted it to the District Magistrate (top administrator in the district) who will forward it to the CDO (Chief Development Officer) for consideration. Simultaneously, since the feeding centres are administered under a central government scheme[5], we’ve also submitted the application to the DPO (District Program Officer), and the CDPO (Child Development Project Officer). (We love acronyms in India.)
One then needs to get a ‘dispatch number’ on the application, after which one, well, waits! All of these officers warn us not to expect a response any time soon. Ominously, we’ve found that, for the last several years, only a handful of new Anganwadi centres have been opened.[6] At our district level, the DPO informed us that there are 400,000 under-6-year-olds in Lucknow, of whom only 250,000 are enrolled in an Anganwadi centre – 37% not having access to that to which they are entitled.
These recent years, in which barely any new Anganwadis have opened, are the very same years when the Indian government has invested millions in the space programme that has allowed the incredible feat of landing a spacecraft on the south pole of the moon.
We wonder what all this says about the political priorities in ‘New India’? I’m guessing that parents in the nearby colony are a little subdued in their celebrations of the moon landing, as they struggle to feed their children.
*Names changes
[1]Yogi, as head of the most populous (240 million) state in India, is arguably the second most powerful man in the country, after Prime Minister Modi.
[2] Chandrayaan-3 Successfully Lands On Moon: Yogi Adityanath, Amit Shah, Kejriwal Shower Congratulatory Messages. jagran.com
[3]If you’re interested in statistics, 10 of the 43 children had a ‘Z’ score of below -3, meaning they are in the bottom 0.13% of weight for age, or in other words, the bottom 1 in 700 children.
[4]https://www.indiacode.nic.in/
[5]Integrated Child Development Scheme
[6]This article claims 50 were opened last year in all of Uttar Pradesh. https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/lucknow-news/lucknow-icds-directorate-sets-up-150-new-anganwadi-centres-plans-to-recruit-52-000-personnel-for-child-development-services-101683139826151.html
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