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INDIA - CHILDREN STARVING AMIDST
BOOMING ECONOMY - WELFARE FOOD SCHEMES MAY NOT REACH POOREST, MOST MALNOURISHED
For Every Starving Child/Girl, There
Is a Mother, Hopefully Alive, Also Hungry, Likely Poor, and In Deep
Despair that She Cannot Provide Her Child/Daughter with Adequate Food and
Nutrition for Health, for Survival - WUNRN
INDIA - ECONOMIC GROWTH LEAVES
STARVING CHILDREN BEHIND
February 16, 2012 - India's
economy, a paragon of development, has more than tripled over the past 20
years, fueling a growing middle class that has helped turn the world's largest
democracy into an engine of the world economy and raised millions out of
poverty. But there is one shocking statistic: India's economic miracle has not
been able to improve the number of children that are severely malnourished.
Some
3,000 children die daily due to illnesses related to poor diets. Forty-two
percent of children under the age of five are underweight, according to a
recent government survey.
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http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/food-for-starving-children-sold-as-feed-for-livestock-in-maharashtra-govt-orders-probe-229175 -
Food for Starving
Children Sold as Feed for Livestock in Maharashtra State - Government Orders
Probe.
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INDIA - PRIVATE PROFITEERS ALLEGEDLY
STEAL FOOD FOR CHILDREN
November
6, 2012 - Private companies have been found to be engaged in
stealing food earmarked for welfare schemes aimed at arresting malnutrition,
the biggest 'national shame' according to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and
'humiliation like none other' according to President Pranab Mukherjee. The only
thing that is more shocking than the revelation is the enormity of the loot
from the one of the flagship project of the incumbent United Progressive
Alliance government. The companies have been stealing more than 1000 Crore INR,
or USD 185 Million in the state of Maharashtra alone. The report estimates
total stolen amount to be close to 8000 Crore INR and finds that all this is
done in direct contravention of various orders of the Supreme Court in the
Civil Writ Petition 196/ 2001 (PUCL vs. UOI).
The findings are from the report of Biraj Patnaik, Principal Adviser,
Commissioners to the Supreme Court and were submitted to the court with
reference to SLP (Civil) No. 10654 of 2012 in the matter of Vyankateshwar
Mahila Auyodhigik Sahakari Sanstha v. Purnima Upadhyay and Others listed along
with Civil Writ Petition 196 of 2001 (PUCL v. UOI). The report explores into
the iron grip maintained by the private profiteers in collusion with the vested
interests deeply entrenched in both political and administrative hierarchy and
traces the modus operandi they use to siphon off rations earmarked for the
millions of starving Indians.
The report shows how private companies had usurped the supply chains of the
Integrated Child Development Scheme by floating fake 'mahila mandals' (women
collectives) which are in fact nothing more than fronts of their private for
profit operations. The usurpation clearly contravenes the clear-cut and
binding order of the Supreme Court delivered on 13th December 2006 that
directed Chief Secretaries of all states and union territories 'to submit
affidavits giving details of the steps that have been taken' with regard to an
earlier order of the Court directing that 'contractors shall not be used for
supply in Anganwadis and preferably ICDS funds shall be spent by making
use of village communities, self-help groups and Mahila Mandals for buying of
grains and preparation of meals.
But it does not stop at merely contravening the Court's order. It also shows
that the Indian executive has not merely become absolutely inefficient and
incompetent to discharge their mandate but has also capitulated to the vested
interests to the extent of enforcing the Supreme Court's order. The report,
further, shows that this is not merely public money but also children's lives
that these profiteers are playing with. The report very clearly indicates
at the collusion of the suppliers and the solitary lab they use for quality check
as every single random sample of the take home ration (THR) taken to the
government lab failed miserably on the nutrition standard. This was also the
finding, the report notes, of an independent quality check of THR by
investigation bureau of English newspaper Daily News and Analysis through a
private lab yielded similar results. Needless is to say that this endangers the
lives of the children consuming these rations.
Most unfortunately, the findings might be limited to the implementation of the
ICDS but this is the state of affairs prevailing in the implementation of
almost all other schemes. In fact, the very recommendation of the Commissioners
to the Court is a telling comment on the executive and its nexus with the
corrupt corporate and political players. The commissioners want an independent
inquiry, under the supervision of the apex court, to be conducted for
investigating the possible nexus "between politicians, bureaucrats and
private contractors in the provisioning of rations to ICDS, leading to large
scale corruption and leakages".
The AHRC strongly endorses the recommendation and demands for not only an
impartial and time bound investigation into the issue but also stern punishment
for those responsible for multiple crimes of stealing public money and putting
the lives of Indian children at risk. India will have no moral right to claim
itself as even a democracy; leave alone the largest democracy of the world, if
it fails to stop this culture of impunity and establishes rule of law in the true
sense of the word.