The Karnataka High Court has taken upon itself the task of monitoring the progress in tackling malnutrition among anganwadi children in the state. On April 3, a division bench headed by Chief Justice Vikramajit Sen had pulled up the government for ‘inefficient’ handling of the malnutrition problem among children and had scrapped the committee mooted by the government.
On Thursday, the high court directed the government to reconstitute the committee to monitor the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) project in the State. According to sources, the new committee will be headed by Justice N.K. Patil and will comprise eight other members – director of health and family welfare department, joint director of ICDS, chairperson of Karnataka Child Rights Commission Nina Nayak, Advocate Clifton D‘Rosario, member secretary of Karnataka State Legal Services Authority, nutritionist Dr Vijayalakshmi, Ms Maya Mascarenhas and co-ordinator of Samajik Parivarthan Janandolan Y. Mariswamy.
With malnutrition assuming epidemic proportions, the court has also given the monitoring committee special powers to explore all interrelated issues to get a broader perspective of the problem. The committee is to submit an action plan within 15 days to the high court.