States likely to decide menu for children's meal scheme

  • 16/10/2008

  • Business Standard (New Delhi)

Sreelatha Menon / New Delhi October 16, 2008, 0:27 IST The government is all set to put an end to the debate on whether hot cooked meals or ready-to-eat food like biscuits should be served in the anganwadis, the pre-school feeding centres run under the central government scheme of Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS). The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has proposed that the matter be left to the state governments to decide, even as it says that hot cooked food without clean rooms and hygienic conditions can be harmful. The matter which is expected to get the final stamp of approval from the Cabinet tomorrow, has been a bone of contention between the lobby supporting pre-cooked food, backed by Women and Child Development Minister Renuka Chaudhury, and that backing hot cooked food, a view supported by the Supreme Court itself and endorsed by Nobel laureate Amartya Sen. Chaudhury has been stubbornly rooting for ready-to-eat food in spite of opposition from NGOs, the court, and even the Prime Minister