Govt invites EOI for supply of supplementary nutrition under Anganwadi services

New Delhi: Women & Child Development (WCD) Minister Kailash Gahlot approved inviting Expressions of Interest (EOI) for the supply of supplementary nutrition under anganwadi services to the women and children beneficiaries at anganwadi centres for all the 11 districts in the capital. Self-Help Groups (SHGs), their consortium, and Organisations having resources to set up and operate large kitchen and food processing units with the involvement of local women collectives can participate subject to fulfillment of eligibility criteria laid down in the EOI guidelines.

Gahlot recently visited some of the Anganwadi Centres and kitchens in Delhi and after a series of meetings, he directed the Department to develop guidelines to ensure effective & efficient involvement of SHGs or women collectives at the local level. The new guidelines focus on the quality of services, standardised mechanism, fortification process, food labelling, packaging and strengthening monitoring system to prevent leakage in the supply of supplementary nutrition.

The District Nutrition Committee headed by the respective District Magistrate will facilitate the convergence of different stakeholders for the effective functioning of the supplementary nutrition programme. A dedicated Project Management Unit will be set up at the Department level which will monitor the involvement of the organisations and SHGs associated with them and evaluate the performance. Periodic checking of the distribution of supplementary nutrition and mobilisation of beneficiaries for their enrolment under the scheme shall be done by the Mukhyamantri Anganwadi Monitoring Committees constituted by the department.

The scheme covers children between the age of six months to six years and pregnant women and lactating mothers registered at anganwadi centres.

Gahlot said: "Our prime objective is to have a modernised set up for cooking hot meals and processed take-home ration, quality testing and scheduled delivery at Anganwadi Centres so that the services reach the end beneficiary at least for 300 days a year uninterruptedly."