States can feed malnourished kids therapeutic food: Centre

In a major change in its nutrition policy, the Narendra Modi government has decided that states are free to take a call on providing ready-to-use therapeutic food to children suffering from severe acute malnutrition. The Centre so far maintained that the use of ready-touse therapeutic food (RUTF) was “not an accepted policy” and that “enough evidence” was not available for its utility in treating children suffering from severe acute malnutrition (SAM). The move is likely to pave the way for the Maharashtra government to resume the procurement of RUTF, which it had to suspend following a petition in the Bombay high court. The state government announced in September in the high court its decision to hold the purchase of RUTF until it received the Centre’s clearance. “For management of SAM children, the decision to provide RUTF may be left to the discretion of individual states,” as per the minutes of a meeting in the prime minister’s office (PMO) on November 4. The meeting was attended by officials from the PMO, the NITI Aayog CEO, and the secretaries of the women and child development (WCD) ministry and the health and family welfare ministry. RUTF is a high-energy, micro-nutrient enhanced paste used to treat children under five years who are affected by SAM. According to the National Family Health Survey-4, over 93 lakh children in the country suffer from severe acute malnutrition (SAM), which is a condition where children have a very low weight for height or severe wasting or suffer from a nutritional oedema. WCD Minister Maneka Gandhi, a strong votary of RUTF, held a meeting last month with PMO officials to push for the calorie-dense paste after a government committee rejected it in its draft nutrition guidelines. “Khaana nahi dena (don’t give food), we give nutrition,” Ms Gandhi said at a conference of officials from 130 districts in September.

She advocated replacing hot-cooked food with RUTF and said that it should be given not just to children suffering from SAM but to all children coming to anganwadis. “Why should we wait for a child to become severely malnourished. We should give it (RUTF) to normal children so that they don’t get into malnourishment at all,” Ms Gandhi added.

The PMO-led meeting earlier this month, however, decided that the practice of providing hotcooked meals to children between three years and six years as well as takehome ration for children between six months and three years, pregnant women and lactating mothers “will continue as prescribed under the existing scheme of ICDS and as mandated by the NFSA (National Food Security Act)”.