Review: NITI Aayog’s report identifies best practices from states across the Take-Home Rations value chain
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
July 21, 2022
The Supplementary Nutrition Programme under ICDS aims to close the nutrition gap among pregnant and breastfeeding mothers as well as children under the age of six. SNP is provided in two ways: Take-Home Rations (THR) and Hot-Cooked Meals at Anganwadi Centres (AWCs).  NITI Aayog’s recent report identifies best practices from states across the Take-Home Rations value chain.
Public policy is often fraught with myriad challenges since they do not have any specific set of solutions and are often interlinked. Some public policy challenges continue for several decades, with periodic improvements over the years. Child malnutrition is one such challenge. The first ever National Family Health Survey (NFHS) in 1992-93 found that nearly half of the children are stunted and underweight. It presented a dismal picture of child nutrition in India. Many schemes have been launched over the last few years to tackle the issue of child malnutrition in India. One such major scheme is the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), which forms the core of child nutrition in India. It also includes the supplemental nutrition programme (SNP), growth monitoring and promotion, nutrition and health education, immunization, health check-ups, and health referrals in addition to pre-school education under its ambit.
The Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) programme, which falls under the umbrella of food-based safety nets, seamlessly puts together the “first 1000 days” window of crucial importance while addressing malnutrition in young children and pregnant/lactating women through a variety of services such as the distribution of take-home rations (THR), nutrition health education, etc. The Supplementary Nutrition Programme (SNP) under ICDS aims to close the nutrition gap among pregnant and breastfeeding mothers as well as children under the age of six. SNP is provided in two ways: Take-Home Rations (THR) and Hot-Cooked Meals at Anganwadi Centres (AWCs).  Take-Home Rations (THR) are provided to children aged 6 to 36 months as well as pregnant and lactating women through the ICDS programme for consumption at home. Through complementary feeding, THR seeks to address the nutrition gap that exists among new-borns and young children.
We look at the report by NITI Aayog and World Food Programme, ‘Take Home Ration- Good Practices- Across the States/ UTs’ in today’s story. This report on best practises aggregates and analyses THR programme developments across several States and Union Territories to create a list of best practises used in the THR value chain’s execution, from formulations to last-mile distribution.
Anganwadis at a glance
As of 30 June 2021, a total of 13,99,697 Anganwadi Centres (AWCs) are established, out of which 13,89,110 centres are operational. This is an improvement from 13,63,021 operational Anganwadi centres in 2017-18. It is crucial that the AWC surroundings and the spaces around it are kept in a clean condition because children, pregnant women, and breastfeeding women frequently visit the facility and have a higher risk of infection during this vulnerable time. The infrastructure of the AWCs varies in size and is often dependent on the amount of available area. However, basic infrastructural facilities like drinking water facility and toilet facility are absent in more than 1.5 lakh AWCs. Almost 25 percent of the AWCs run in rented buildings, making permanent infrastructure provisioning difficult.
On the human resources and manpower front, a total of 13.14 lakh Anganwadi Workers and 11.73 Lakh Anganwadi helpers, along with 4798 Child Development Project Officers (CPDOs), and 33,616 lady supervisors ensure the smooth functioning of the AWCs. However, as evident from an answer of the government in the parliament in July 2021, approximately 1.94 Lakh posts are lying vacant as of March 2021, across all the Anganwadi Service functionaries. This is a slight reduction compared to 2.42 lakh vacancies in 2018, 2.11 lakh in 2019, and 1.92 lakh in 2020. Among the distribution across the states, five states account for around 1.3 lakh vacancies in 2021.
On the financial side, the funds allocated for the states by the Union Government for implementing Supplementary Nutrition Programme grew consistently from 2011-12 till 2020-21, except for a dip in 2015-16. An exponential jump can be seen since 2016-17. This could be due to the setting up of National Nutrition Mission with an outlay of Rs. 9,046 Crores for three years, starting from 2017-18. However, we had earlier noted a decline in the budget allocation for both mid-day meals and ICDS in 2022-23. Also, the amount transferred to states increased despite the fall in the number of beneficiaries under the Supplementary nutrition program. It is found that most of the northeastern states receive higher average funds per beneficiary, while Kerala receives the highest among the large states category.
Take Home Ration – Value chain
The National Nutrition Mission (NNM), also known as the Prime Minister’s overarching Scheme for Holistic Nutrition (POSHAN Abhiyaan), has recently given the supplemental nutrition services offered under the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) programme a fresh priority. More than 9 crore beneficiaries who are registered at AWCs receive SNP using two delivery methods: Hot-Cooked Meal (HCM) and Take-Home Ration (THR). The THR programme seeks to supply supplemental food items for use in households to women who are pregnant or nursing, as well as children aged 6 to 36 months. THR programme accounts for a major share in the ICDS budget, with both the State and Union Governments spending approximately Rs. 13,500 cores on it annually.
The THR value chain starts from procurement, followed by the production model, supply chain management, product formulation, Quality control, packaging and labeling, monitoring, and ends with Social and Behaviour Change Communication (SBCC). All these stages are crucial in ensuring the efficiency of service delivery. We shall look into best practices followed by the states in each of these stages as noted in the NITI Aayog’s report. Below are the criteria for the evaluation of best practices.
Best Practices:
Procurement
Production Model
States can contract production to either private or government entities. The THR production facilities are managed by local entities like the Women Self-Help Groups (SHGs) in the decentralized production model. A decentralized production model including SHGs stood out as a good practice when analysing the different ways in which the state governments are contracting the production.
Local production of THR by Women SHGs of Kudumbashree Mission in Kerala, production through Women SHGs with fixed time periods for each of the processes in Odisha, and production by Mahila Supplementary Food Production Centres (MSPCs) led by Women Self-help groups in Karnataka are some of the best examples of involving WSHGs in production.
In Odisha, a total of 568 THR-making units run by around 7000 women manage the entire production cycle, covering 72,602 AWCs and benefiting more than 25 Lakh beneficiaries. In Karnataka, around 137 MSPCs are established, each containing 22-25 members from the vulnerable sections of the society.
Supply Chain Management
Product Formulation
Quality Assurance/ Quality Control
Packaging and Labelling
Monitoring
Social and Behaviour change communication
These are some of the best practices in the THR value chain as identified in the NITI Aayog report. It becomes important for the states to cross-learn to adopt the best practices from other states and Union Territories. Sharing new innovative approaches, coupled with regular sensitization of states and UTs on technological adoption in the THR value chain is the way forward.
Featured Image: Supplementary Nutrition Programme