“People say hungry children is a shame for India. I don’t give a damn whether it is shame for India. It is a question of well-being and opportunities for these children,’’ said Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen expressing outrage at the state of India’s children. He was speaking at Bal Adhikar Samvaad, organised by the Citizens’ Initiative for Rights of Children Under Six.

Sen released FOCUS, a report that highlights the startling contrasts in the effectiveness of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) programme — designed to meet the educational, health and nutritional needs of children under six through an anganwadi centre for 1000 families — within different states.

It adds to the findings of the recently released National Family Health Survey-3 data for 22 states, which has made the startling revelation that in the last eight years, there has been no change in child malnutrition levels, no progress on immunization and no decline in the incidence of anaemia.

“Few countries in the world have such poor indicators of child well-being,” says the report, which draws on a detailed survey of the ICDS programme in six states done between May-June 2004.

The coverage of ICDS has increased since 1975 when it was first conceived but barely one- fourth of children are covered under the supplementary nutrition programme till date. The government has no option but to universalise it now after the December 13 landmark judgment of the Supreme Court directing the government to universalise ICDS within two years. This translates into 14 lakh anganwadis by 2008. The court has asked chief secretaries of nine states about the status and issued show-cause notice for contempt of court to those of 15 others.

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