Skip to main content

Stop Govt of India’s ‘misadventure’ with rice fortification: Experts tell Jharkhand govt

At the end of a three-day fact-finding visit in Jharkhand by Right to Food Campaign (RtFC) and Alliance for Sustainable & Holistic Agriculture (ASHA-Kisan Swaraj), team members have urged Jharkhand Government to stop distribution of fortified rice in the state immediately. The Fact Finding Report points to the many serious concerns with regard to indiscriminate distribution of fortified rice to poor households in the state, and in Anganwadis and schools.
The fact-finding team stresses that in Jharkhand, even as there are high levels of anaemia, there is a significant proportion of adivasi population amongst whom various blood disorders like thalassemia and sickle cell anaemia exist.
For the population with these blood disorders, fortified iron is not an answer, the report says. In fact, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India's (FSSAI’s) regulations on fortified foods ask for mandatory labelling, with a (warning) statement that asks Thalassemia patients to consume such iron-fortified food under medical supervision. It further warns/advises sickle cell anaemia patients not to consume iron-fortified food.
“On the one hand, the government understands the health risks of consumption of iron fortified food for many people with particular health conditions in our society, and brings in regulations like this. On the other hand, the government itself is distributing such rice in all its food schemes where the poor have no option but to depend on this entitlement for their food security”, says the fact-finding team.
It adds, “What is more, in Jharkhand due to lack of population-based screening, people with these health conditions may not know that they have these blood disorders; further, the government is also distributing such rice without any proper information to or dialogue with the communities.”
Field visits also showed that many people do not prefer consuming this rice and are even separating and removing the fortified rice kernels before cooking and consuming the rice, the report claims.
The fact-finding team included Dr Vandana Prasad, a public health expert also associated with the Right To Food Campaign; Kavitha Kuruganti, farmers’ rights activist with ASHA-Kisan Swaraj; Balram and James Herenz of Right to Food Campaign, Jharkhand; Rohin Kumar of Greenpeace India; Soumik Banerjee of ASHA-Kisan Swaraj and Raj Shekhar Singh of Right to Food Campaign National Secretariat.
The team visited on May 8-10, 2022 five villages in Khunti and East Singhbhum districts where they met with PDS beneficiaries, dealers, CHC doctors, ASHA and Anganwadi workers, cooks in Anganwadis and schools, officials and patients in district level hospitals, one rice mill owner and so on. They met with Jamshedpur East MLA Mr Saryu Roy and Chakuliya MLA Samir Mohanty. The team members also interacted with concerned state level officials, and also met with Cabinet Minister Dr Rameshwar Oraon.
“Fortified rice is not a proven approach to tackle anaemia effectively, as per published papers and reviews, the report says. It is surprising that the Government of India, in a hasty blanket approach, has already scaled up distribution of fortified rice to 257 districts across India, even though the so-called ‘pilots’ have not completed three years, nor evaluated, nor findings put out in the public domain”, the report says.
“In Jharkhand, too, Official data on the government portal shows fortified rice being distributed in two blocks of East Singhbhum (the designated Pilot district in the state) only from October 2021. However, without any data being shared on the portal about the distribution in other districts, fortified rice has already been taken to several districts. What is the meaning or purpose of the Pilot then?”, asked the fact-finding team members.
Believes the fact-finding team, “Anaemia and other malnourishment conditions have to be tackled effectively and there is no doubt about it. However, the approaches have to be proven, holistic, natural, safe and community-controlled. Dietary diversity is an important approach and cannot be given the short shrift due to hasty adoption and attention to risky unproven approaches like food fortification.”
It continues, “In Jharkhand, civil society groups have already demonstrated there are effective ways of dealing with nutrition holistically. Local, diverse foods (including uncultivated forest foods and traditional crops and varieties) play a key role along with participatory learning in these community-led approaches.”
The report recommends, “The government has to expand its food security basket to include millets, pulses, eggs, cooking oil and milk in the food schemes. Nutrition Gardens should be scaled up along with support to extensive livestock systems that provide nutrition as well as support livelihoods. Further, a well-managed micronutrient supplementation program can be run with the supply of such micronutrients smoothened out and last mile delivery ensured”.

Comments

TRENDING

Ahmedabad's civic chaos: Drainage woes, waterlogging, and the illusion of Olympic dreams

In response to my blog on overflowing gutter lines at several spots in Ahmedabad's Vejalpur, a heavily populated area, a close acquaintance informed me that it's not just the middle-class housing societies that are affected by the nuisance. Preeti Das, who lives in a posh locality in what is fashionably called the SoBo area, tells me, "Things are worse in our society, Applewood."

Powering pollution, heating homes: Why are Delhi residents opposing incineration-based waste management

While going through the 50-odd-page report Burning Waste, Warming Cities? Waste-to-Energy (WTE) Incineration and Urban Heat in Delhi , authored by Chythenyen Devika Kulasekaran of the well-known advocacy group Centre for Financial Accountability, I came across a reference to Sukhdev Vihar — a place where I lived for almost a decade before moving to Moscow in 1986 as the foreign correspondent of the daily Patriot and weekly Link .

PharmEasy: The only online medical store which revises prices upwards after confirming the order

For senior citizens — especially those without a family support system — ordering medicines online can be a great relief. Shruti and I have been doing this for the last couple of years, and with considerable success. We upload a prescription, receive a verification call from a doctor, and within two or three days, the medicines are delivered to our doorstep.

Dalit rights and political tensions: Why is Mevani at odds with Congress leadership?

While I have known Jignesh Mevani, one of the dozen-odd Congress MLAs from Gujarat, ever since my Gandhinagar days—when he was a young activist aligned with well-known human rights lawyer Mukul Sinha’s organisation, Jan Sangharsh Manch—he became famous following the July 2016 Una Dalit atrocity, in which seven members of a family were brutally assaulted by self-proclaimed cow vigilantes while skinning a dead cow, a traditional occupation among Dalits.  

RP Gupta a scapegoat to help Govt of India manage fallout of Adani case in US court?

RP Gupta, a retired 1987-batch IAS officer from the Gujarat cadre, has found himself at the center of a growing controversy. During my tenure as the Times of India correspondent in Gandhinagar (1997–2012), I often interacted with him. He struck me as a straightforward officer, though I never quite understood why he was never appointed to what are supposed to be top-tier departments like industries, energy and petrochemicals, finance, or revenue.

Boeing 787 under scrutiny again after Ahmedabad crash: Whistleblower warnings resurface

A heart-wrenching tragedy has taken place in Ahmedabad. As widely reported, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner plane crashed shortly after taking off from the city’s airport, currently operated by India’s top tycoon, Gautam Adani. The aircraft was carrying 230 passengers and 12 crew members.  As expected, the crash has led to an outpouring of grief across the country. At the same time, there have been demands for the resignation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, and the Civil Aviation Minister.

Global NGO slams India for media clampdown during conflict, downplays Pakistan

A global civil rights group, Civicus has taken strong exception to how critical commentaries during the “recent conflict” with Pakistan were censored in India, with journalists getting “targeted”. I have no quarrel with the Civicus view, as the facts mentioned in it are all true.

A conman, a demolition man: How 'prominent' scribes are defending Pritish Nandy

How to defend Pritish Nandy? That’s the big question some of his so-called fans seem to ponder, especially amidst sharp criticism of his alleged insensitivity during his journalistic career. One such incident involved the theft and publication of the birth certificate of Masaba Gupta, daughter of actor Neena Gupta, in the Illustrated Weekly of India, which Nandy was editing at the time. He reportedly did this to uncover the identity of Masaba’s father.

From SECI CMD to #OpenToWork: Gujarat cadre ex-IAS RP Gupta’s curious LinkedIn journey

Recently, I wrote a blog on retired Gujarat cadre IAS bureaucrat RP Gupta, with whom I used to interact during my Gandhinagar Sachivalaya days as the Times of India man. Written in the backdrop of the Government of India controversially easing him out of his position as CMD of the PSU Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), a special purpose vehicle to promote solar energy, the title of the  blog  — "RP Gupta a scapegoat to help Govt of India manage fallout of Adani case in US court?" — is self-explanatory about the blog’s contents.