URGENT ACTIONS

India: right to food of children still not implemented in Uttar Pradesh

CASES

OPEN LETTERS

Despite recommendations from local authorities Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) is still not implemented in village Jalapur of Uttar Pradesh thereby threatening the right to food of children and women in the village. ICDS programmes address the health and nutrition needs of children under the age of six and also extend to adolescent girls, pregnant women and nursing mothers. ICDS is provided through a network of centers called "Anganwadis" (AWC). It is mandatory for the state to provide AWC for every settlement with forty children. However, in Jalalpur where 300 families reside, including 100 children, the state has failed to establish AWC, thereby making children and women susceptible to hunger and under nourishment.

Call to action
An international action is urgently needed to ensure that the state provides ICDS in Jalalpur so that children and women can receive supplementary nutrition and health care. Please write polite letters to the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, requesting her to meet the obligations under the human right to adequate food.

Background

In India, 16 percent of the population is below six years of age and every second child is underweight.  In Uttar Pradesh, according to the Sample Registration Service (SRS) 47 percent of the children under 3 are underweight. The Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), established in India in 1975, is the major national program addressing the health and nutritional needs of children under the age of six. It seeks to provide infants and young children with an integrated package of services, including supplementary nutrition, health care and pre-school education. Since the needs of a child cannot be addressed in isolation from those of his or her mother, the program also extends to adolescent girls, pregnant women and nursing mothers. ICDS services are provided through a vast network of ICDS centers, better known as "Anganwadis" (AWC). It is mandatory for the state government to provide an AWC to every settlement with 40 children. The supplementary nutrition currently provided is cereal based and does not take into consideration the protein and vitamin requirements of the children and young women. However, the Supplementary Nutrition Programme, rendered under the ICDS, is one of its prime services that provide nutritious food to the children in the age group of 6 months to 6 years, pregnant women and lactating mothers. Priority is given to the families living below the poverty line.

Although the ICDS scheme has been working for over 30 years, the number of malnourished children is still very high. In many settlements, particularly slums or rural areas, children are still excluded from the benefits of the scheme. The situation in Jalalpur village is a case in point. The village of Jalalpur is located in Lakhimpur district in Uttar Pradesh and the home to around 300 families. Most of them belong to the Dalit caste. The main source of food for the locals is rice that lacks a variety of vitamins or proteins. There are around 100 children in the village, but there is no AWC or school despite the fact that it is mandatory for the state government to set up an AWC for each settlement with at least 40 children. FIAN has already intervened in this case in 2009 with UIND 0912, and as a result the local authorities have recommended that AWC be set up in Jalapur. But district and state authority have not taken any decision till now in this regard.  Given the high level of undernutrition the implementation of such social programmes is necessary - but insufficient to deal with the problem of exclusion of Dalits and other sectors of Indian society from resources and income. Economic policies need to be geared towards the needs of these families such as agrarian reforms and mass generation of suitable self- or wage-employment.

FIAN Mandate

India is a state party to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Therefore it is duty bound under international law to fulfill its people's right to food. By failing to effectively implement the ICDS and an AWC in the village of Jalalpur, the state of Uttar Pradesh, and hence India, violates the right to food and breaches its international obligations under the Covenant. As a consequence children and women there are denied nutritional and health benefits they are entitled to. Lack of nutritional benefits makes them susceptible to hunger and under nourishment and prone to illnesses.

Please inform FIAN International about any response you receive to your faxes and letters.