NEW DELHI: Delhi’s women and child development minister Kailash Gahlot on Friday approved a proposal to invite Expressions of Interest for the supply of supplementary nutrition under anganwadi services from self-help groups, their consortium and organisations having resources to set up and operate large kitchen and food processing units by involving local women collectives.
The government in a statement said that the existing system of providing supplementary nutrition was 15 years old and predominantly operated by non-profit organisations. In most cases, the women engaged by them remained in the workforce rather than developing as “self-sustainable self-help groups, it said.
According to officials, the minister recently visited some of the anganwadi centres and kitchens in Delhi and directed the department to develop guidelines to ensure effective involvement of SHGs or women collectives at the local level.
“The guidelines prepared are based on the studies of different models operating in the country for supply of the supplementary nutrition and recommendations received from an expert committee constituted by the department. 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 government said.
