1. Recent data on child malnutrition underscore the value of good school meals
- Context:. The findings in Phase I of the NFHS 5 for 22 States and Union Territories in December 2020 were shocking: childhood stunting rose in 13 States, there was high prevalence of anaemia among children and women, and wasting was a serious concern in 12 States.
New Changes:
- The mid – day meal scheme named has been changed for the PM POSHAN ABHIYAN
- The new scheme tenure for five years extended to pre – primary childrens, provides social audits and active engagement of farmers FPOs.
- The Saksham Anganwadi Mission POSHAN 2.0, which amalgamates the POSHAN Abhiyan and schemes covering anganwadis, crèches and adolescent girls, is fiscally stronger than its erstwhile component parts.
More about PM POSHAN:
Coverage:
- Primary (1-5) and upper primary (6-8) schoolchildren are currently entitled to 100 grams and 150 grams of food grains per working day each, to ensure a minimum of 700 calories.
- The scheme will be extended to students studying in pre-primary or Balvatikas running in government and government aided primary schools.
- Balvatika is the pre-school that was started in government schools last year to include children aged younger than six years in the formal education system.
- Nutritional gardens : The gardens are being provided to offer additional micro-nutrients to students.
Features:
- Supplementary Nutrition: supplementary nutrition for children in aspirational districts and those with high prevalence of anemia
- Finance decentralization: It does away with the restriction on the part of the Centre to provide funds only for wheat, rice, pulses and vegetables.
- Earilier, if a state decides to add any component like milk or eggs to the menu, the Centre does not bear the additional cost. Now that restriction has been lifted.
- Tithi Bhojan Concept: TithiBhojan is a community participation programme in which people provide special food to children on special occasions/festivals.
- Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT):The central government will ensure Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) from states to schools, which will use it to cover cooking costs.
- Earlier money was allocated to the states, which then included their share of the money before sending it to a nodal midday meal scheme authority at district and tehsil levels.
- Nutrition Expert: A nutrition expert is to be appointed in each school whose responsibility is to ensure that health aspects such as Body Mass Index (BMI), weight and haemoglobin levels are addressed.
- Social Audit of the Scheme: A social audit of the scheme has also been mandated for each school in each state to study the implementation of the scheme, which was so far not being done by all states.
- Vocal for Local for Atmanirbhar Bharat: Involvement of FPO and SHG( Self help group) in implementation of the scheme will be encouraged.
Significance of the move
- Holistic coverage of childerns: it covers pre primary childerns also
- Atmanirbhar bharat: FPO and SHG will contribute
Challenges of the scheme
- Meeting Nutrition Targets:
- As per the Global Nutrition Report 2020, India is among 88 countries that are likely to miss global nutrition targets by 2025.
- Serious ‘Hunger’ Level:
- India has been ranked at 94 among 107 countries in the Global hunger index 2020. India has a level of hunger that is “serious”.
- Corrupt practices and Caste Bias and Discrimination in serving food.
Conclusion: Children are the future of India. Thus it is an imperative to have a good physical, social and mental health. In this context, the PM POSHAN Abhiyan is a welcome step. However, care must be taken that it may not suffer the same fate as the mid-day meal scheme. Certainly due to the comprehensive nature we can be optimistic about some of the productive changes that will surely help in countering the stunting, wasting and anemic numbers.
2. The institutionalisation of the organisation has begun and it is a chance for India to work with the advanced economies
Context: The first in-person summit of the Quad powers — Australia, Japan, India and the United States — has clearly advanced the work begun by the virtual summit in March. The September 24 meeting, hosted by U.S. President Joseph Biden, drew global attention both for its symbolism and substance.
Coverage of the QUAD Summit:
- Self-perceptions: Mr. Biden portrayed the Quad as a group of democratic partners “who share a worldview and have a common vision for the future”. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was confident that the Quad would “play the role of a force for global good”.
- The joint statement issued following the summit, began with the compromise formulation crafted last March, to emphasise the leaders’ commitment to “a free and open Indo-Pacific, which is also inclusive and resilient”.
- Promoting security and prosperity in this region is the raison d’être(reason for being) of the Quad, a goal to be achieved through practical cooperation among the four powers.
New areas of collaboration: infrastructure; cybersecurity and space; education and people-to-people relations.
- Infrastructure: The plan is to promote “sustainable infrastructure”, with a stress on aligning the Quad with the G7’s Build Back Better World (B3W) Partnership, based on the G20’s quality infrastructure investment principles. The formation of an infrastructure coordination group composed of senior officials was announced, in this regard. It will map and coordinate infrastructure needs and catalyse private-sector investment.
- Cyber-security: the Quad will cooperate on combating cyber threats and securing critical infrastructure.
- Space front: the plan is to identify new collaboration opportunities, especially sharing of data to monitor climate change, disaster response and preparedness, and sustainable uses of ocean and marine resources.
- A senior cyber group and a new working group on space will be established.
- On education: the Quad fellowship programme will award 100 graduates — 25 scholars from each Quad country — opportunities in leading STEM (Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) programmes in the U.S. This is not a government programme but a philanthropic initiative.
- On vaccines: the Quad stands committed to donate over 1.2 billion doses globally, although only 79 million doses have been delivered so far. The production of vaccines in India — with the target of “at least 1 billion doses” of COVID-19 vaccines by the end of 2022 — is on track. Vaccines are slated for free distribution in the Indo-Pacific region, beginning next February. Ample funding has been assured by Japan and Australia.
- Besides, new measures are contemplated to conduct research and step-up preparedness to handle future pandemics.
- The Quad working group on climate change has focused on three thematic areas: climate ambition, clean-energy innovation, and climate adaptation and resilience. The leaders emphasised enhanced action for achieving global net-zero emissions preferably by 2050, with an important caveat — “taking into account national circumstances” — added at India’s instance.
- A Quad shipping task force has now been launched to build a green-shipping network and green port infrastructure.
- For Critical and emerging technologies: a slew of steps is under consideration relating to 5G and beyond 5G networks; supply chains of critical minerals including semiconductors; and emerging advances in biotechnology. To be successful, building the supply chains will need expert resources and coordination from each country. A contact group on Advanced Communications and Artificial Intelligence will focus on standards-development and foundational research.
Political facets
- Addressing economic challenges by China: Cooperation among the Quad members in the six areas mentioned will help the grouping to address the economic and technological challenges posed by China.
- Maritime security will continue to be strengthened through bilateral 2+2 Ministerial tracks; the four-powers Malabar Exercise; and other bilateral or trilateral arrangements such as AUKUS (the new trilateral security pact between Australia, the United Kingdom and the U.S.).
- Defence cooperation will just be handled differently. The Quad wants a positive orientation, rather than be seen as an ‘Asian NATO’.
- Strategically on ASEAN: the Quad sees the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as “the heart of the Indo-Pacific region”. Together with the small island States in the South Pacific, ASEAN countries will stand to benefit from growing cooperation within the Quad. So will the European Union (EU), whose new EU Strategy for Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific was welcomed by the four leaders.
- Strategically on Afghanistan: the decision to “closely coordinate” policies and next steps will be watched as the U.S. comes under strong pressure to show flexibility towards the interim Taliban government.
Conclusion: For India, this grouping is critical. It is the first major plurilateral organisation in years where India is on the ground floor, an equal partner of the new P4. It has much to contribute and leverage, beyond its market. This is an opportunity for India to work with the advanced economies to “build habits of cooperation”, while confronting the 21st century challenges in its Indo-Pacific neighbourhood
