E-Paper
Poshan scheme - 4 UP blocks to try cash transfer instead of ready food
Four blocks of Lucknow and Sitapur will launch a pilot project to check whether cash transfers work better instead of take-home rations for pregnant women, lactating
Four blocks of Lucknow and Sitapur will launch a pilot project to check whether cash transfers work better instead of take-home rations for pregnant women, lactating mothers and children between six months and three years of age.
The plan has been rolled out again by the current regime at the centre after it was red-flagged by former Union women and child development minister Maneka Gandhi, currently representing the Sultanpur Lok Sabha segment.
In a meeting held recently in New Delhi, the Union government decided to replace the cooked food and subsidised food grains with direct cash in the bank accounts of the beneficiaries – like any other government scheme in Lucknow’s Chinhat and Mohanlalganj blocks and Sitapur’s Khairabad and Mahmudabad blocks.
The beneficiary children below the age of six years will get Rs 8 per day, and pregnant women and lactating mothers will be given Rs 9.50 per day.
Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) director Shatrughan Singh said the pilot project will be rolled out to see whether direct bank transfers can replace the existing system or not. “There are four blocks where the project will be initiated. This will help to check leakage in the existing system,” he said.
However, experts are not much in favour of direct bank transfers in place of cooked food. “The pilot project was run in Jharkhand earlier and it was observed that money was not deposited on time,” said Vikram Dev Singh, a food policy analyst, adding, “Some women did not use the amount for fulfilling their nutritional needs.”
The government is pushing for the change after the NITI Aayog’s survey, carried out in 27 districts in eight states in 2019, observed that only 48% out of the 78% of pregnant women and lactating mothers enrolled in the Anganwadi scheme had access to a hot-cooked meal for an average of 13 days a month.
