Chauhan’s ‘remedy’ for malnutrition

Posted by: N D Sharma on: December 27, 2011

• In: Madhya Pradesh
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Shivraj Singh Chauhan has an innovative mind. He often comes out with ingenious solutions for complex problems. His latest concerns the nourishment of children. Malnourishment has been a scourge of the Chauhan regime; children have been dying from malnutrition in large numbers in different parts of the State. As many as 130,233 children died in the State before attaining the age of five between 2005 and 2009. During the same period, the State received Rs 1601.80 crore in grants from the Centre under the National Rural Health Mission. It includes the Reproductive and Child Health (RCH) programme that seeks to reduce infant and maternal mortality rates, besides attempting to reduce the total fertility rate. But the interest of the chief minister’s wife Sadhna Singh in the affairs of the child and woman welfare department is creating problems.

To overcome this handicap, the Chauhan government has now decided to serve only “murmure” (salted puffed rice) to children in the anganwadis. This will, according to a cabinet decision, take care of the malnutrition among children. Ranjana Baghel, minister of child and woman welfare department, has stated that murmure will be replete with protein and calories.

However, Leader of Opposition Ajay Singh, exultant after a successful no-confidence motion against the Chauhan government, has failed to appreciate Chauhan’s good intentions and even dug up a seven-year-old Supreme Court ruling that children in anganwadis should be served freshly cooked food only. PCC president Kantilal Bhuria has gone a step further and says that Chauhan’s murmura policy has been born out of corruption.

Tags: Ajay Singh, Kantilal Bhuria, Ranjana Baghel, Sadhna Singh Chauhan, Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Supreme Court