The National Nutrition Bureau (NNB) under the Union ministry of human resources development has also written to the food ministry to make fortification of tonned and double tonned milk and edible oils with vitamin A statutory all over the country.

The budgetary allocation for ICDS has remained same at Rs 603.14 crore for the two consecutive years. The budgetary allocation to the World Bank assisted ICDS projects isRs 331.95crore in 1998-99. Allocation for traing under ICDS is Rs 40 crore. Allocation to day care centre is Rs 23.05 crore and that for Balwadi Nutrition Programme is only Rs 6.17 crore.

The nutrition expert, Dr C Gopalan of Nutrition Foundation of India said that there is a need for proper monitoring and strengthening of the existing ICDS programmes all over the country. There should be regular periodic monitoring by the concerned Union human resources development ministry and state governments to assess the improvement made by the programme on child and mother's health and find out the actual level of malnutrition and under nutrition in the country. This is very necessary as the Human Development Index for India has already slipped down to 139 and the President of India in his address on eve of the Republic Day has stated that the number of people below the poverty line in the country at present is equal to the total population of the country in 1947, at the time of Independence.

Dr Umesh Kapil, additionalprofessor in the department of human nutrition in the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) suggested that the HRD ministry should work out the budgetary allocations for the programme in such a way as to cover all the blocks in the country. The ICDS programme has already made tremendous achievement in improving the nutritional status of the underpriviledged mothers and children as is evident from the last survey conducted by the Central Technical Committee for the period 1975-1995. He said that the programme should take assistance from more technical persons.Till September 30, 1997 there were 5614 ICDS projects in operation but by March 31, 1998, the total number of projects was reduced to only 4200. The project started with only 33 blocks in the country in 1975-76. The total number children who are beneficiaries under the programme is assessed at 2.02 crore. About 38 lakh mothers are beneficiaries under this programme.

According to the survey in the National Nutritional Profile of NNB for 18states in the country about 49.1 per cent of underweight boys are in cities, 50.2 per cent of underweight boys are found in rural areas and 43.6 per cent underweight boys are found in semi-urban areas. About 49.2 per cent underweight girls are found in cities, 50 per cent underweight girls are found in rural areas and 45.3 per cent underweight girls are found in semi-urban areas.

Amongst the severely underweight boys 20.3 per cent of them are located in cities, 20.9 per cent of them are located in rural areas and 17.2 per cent of them are located in semi-urban areas. Amongst the severely underweight girls, 20.3 per cent of them are located in cities, 20.8 per cent of them are located in rural areas and 17.8 per cent of them are located in semi-urban areas.

The package of services rendered by the ICDS programme includes supplementary nutrition, immunisation, health check-up, referral services, non-formal pre-school education and nutrition and health education. The initial cost of launching of an ICDScentre is borne by the Centre for one year. Thereafter the food component is provided by the concerned state government.

The National Nutrition Board (NNB) has already adviced to the government to allocate more funds for generating awareness amongst masses about the nutritional content in locally available foods through electronic media, press, posters and seminars. The NNB is of the view that if such an awareness is generated in the low income groups will be able to source the cheap locally available food at cheap rates then to go for high cost food products being catered by the multinationals and big corporate houses.