A recent tender floated by the Jharkhand government regarding procurement of Ready to Use Theraputic Food (RUTF) has invited trouble from the ministry of women and child development (WCD).
While RUTF is mostly used in Sub Saharan Africa, catering to severely malnourished population, India does not approve the strategy of using RUTF in the country. The WCD has now sought an explanation from the department of social welfare of the Jharkhand government regarding the proposal for distributing RUTF in their aanganwadis without taking the ministry into confidence.
According to the information available on the website of government of Jharkhand, bidders have already been chosen both in the technical evaluation of technical bid by the purchase committee and evaluation of samples by the expert committee. A meeting of the purchase committee that evaluates the sample is expected to be on September 27.
However, the proposal has drawn flak from the ministry, which has sought an explanation from the department that comes under the WCD. “The state governments are supposed to follow strict protocol. We have asked for a clarification from the principal secretary. They cannot experiment with any such thing. They are supposed to take clearances from the Centre before embarking on anything. We do not approve of RUTF and we have written to them regarding the issue,” a senior official in the ministry said.
Earlier, in 2009, the UNICEF had to ship back the RUTF which it had distributed to the children, as it had not taken permission from the WCD ministry and the government had objected to it.
The international agency had spent about `11.50 crores in procuring the “imported therapeutic food” in a form of “pulpy nut.”