Bal Adhikar Samvad Delegation to the Prime Minister and Sonia Gandhi

[Right to Food]

Dear Friends,

 

'Bal Adhikar Samvad' -,the public gathering on rightsd of children under-six, on 19th December 2006 was successful. We are also happy to say that a delegation from the Samvad met with the prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh and Congress Chairperson Mrs. Sonia Gandhi. A report of the same is given below. 

 

Bal Adhikar Samvad Delegation to the Prime Minister,
19th December 2006

A 'Bal Adhikar Samvad' delegation of five, comprising
Annie Raja, Harsh Mander, Jean Dreze, Kavita
Srivastava and Shanta Sinha, met Dr. Manomohan Singh
on the evening of the 19th December 2006. The Prime
Minister was presented with a copy of the Focus On
Children Under Six (FOCUS) Report.

The delegation put forth three demands:

1. making NFHS III data public,
2. implementing the SC order in letter and spirit
and,
3. above all universaling ICDS with quality.

Dr. Singh said that he knew about the unchanged
situation of the NFHS III data as far as immunisation,
anaemia and malnutirion was concerned; and also
expressed concern that we were doing worse than Sub
Saharan Africa. He went on to say that, "we know the
problem but we do not know the solution, so we want
you to tell us what we can do"

He felt that universalisation of ICDS was not a
difficult issue as they had taken a decision to, in
any case, increase the budget for the ICDS centres
considerably. Nonetheless he was unsure whether ICDS
centres could actually bring about improvement as,
though Tamil Nadu was very good but not necessarily
other States. However the delegation told him to get
over the scepticism over ICDS and believe in it. Also
that ICDS was all about an agenda of nurturing and
caring, and this message should be strongly sent by
him. The members of the delegation also suggested that
he call a meeting of the Chief Ministers on the issue
of children's nutritional status so that this problem
can be addressed on a priority basis.

The delegation also suggested that different
interventions were required at the urban and rural
levels. Similarly the need to reach out to
marginalized and excluded groups was put forth by
Harsh Mander. Jean Dreze said that the ICDS structure
needed a revamp including training and other related
issues. Shantha Sinha spoke of how in the last two
years M V foundation had intervened with the
panchayats, and motivated them to monitor the
development of the children going to the ICDS on a
monthly basis.

At the end of the meeting the Prime Minister said that
he would immediately send a letter to all Chief
Ministers, saying that children's nutritional and
health status needed to be a priority and the need to
focus on ICDS. He declared that a meeting with all
chief ministers would be called in two months time.
 

Bal Adhikar Samvad Delegation to the Congress
Chairperson Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, 20th December 2006.

A delegation from Bal Adhikar Samvad, met with Mrs.
Sonia Gandhi on th evening of 20th December 2006.
The delegation comprised Annie Raja, Devika Singh,
Jean Dreze, Kavita Srivastava and Navjyoti. She was
presented with a copy of the FOCUS report and a set of
demands (same as those presented to the prime
Minister).

1. making NFHS III data public,
2. implementing the SC order in letter and spirit
and,
3. above all universaling ICDS with quality.

She said that she knew about the terrible condition of
children and had also spoken with Montek Singh
Ahluwalia who also was very concerned. The delegation
expressed the same concerns with her and she said that
she would try ensuring it priority in Congress ruled
States. Devika Singh put forth that all efforts were
being made to farm out work to ASHA, NGOs etc., in
fact, everything but address the issues of improving
outreach to under-threes and improve preschool
education, which would require dealing with staffing,
infrastructure and budget. These were priorities for
improving quality. The delegation suggested that the 26th January
Gram Sabhas could have ICDS as a priority.

Devika Singh spoke about the constraints that a single
Anganwadi worker is subjected to, and the success of
the TN model was related to the fact that there were
two AWWs. The delegation also spoke of giving a
dignity wage to the AWW and that Supreme Court orders had helped
in streamlining ICDS in several places.

She agreed that she would treat it as a priority.

__________________________________________________ 

Wishing you a happy new year.
Yours Sincerely

Spurthi Reddy

--
Secretariat - Right to Food Campaign
Q - 21-B, Top Floor
Jangpura Extn.
New Delhi, Pin Code 110014
India
Ph: 91-11-43501335
website: www.righttofoodindia.org
email: right...@gmail.com