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Second test run of take-home ration scheme in UP's Sitapur

NEW DELHI: After facing many red flags over the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme in its last term, the Narendra Modi government has selected UP’s Sitapur district for conducting a second testrun of this much debated scheme which gives take-home rations and hot cooked meals in anganwadi centres.

Categorised as a ‘high-burden’ district by the Niti Ayog that helms Poshan Abhiyan, a nutrition programme of the government to tackle malnutrition, Sitapur is among the 10 districts in the country that face the highest prevalence of malnutrition with nearly 56.4% cases of stunting, when the national average is about 38%.

The other high-burden districts categorised by the government’s think-tank are other UP districts of Bahraich, Gonda and Balrampur.

As reported by ET earlier, after a pilot project in Jharkhand for the DBT scheme meant for ten districts revealed that many beneficiaries actually preferred food grains over cash, and the then Women and Child Development minister Maneka Gandhi terming the scheme as ‘impractical’ and ‘political suicide’, the National Nutrition Council had decided to conduct a scaled-down pilot in UP and Rajasthan.

Apart from Sitapur, the pilot for testing cash transfers in lieu of take-home rations and hot meals for pregnant/lactating mothers and children between the ages 0 and 6 years will be conducted by the Woman and Child Development ministry in a block in Lucknow district and Rajasthan’s Jaipur and Alwar districts.

The districts were finalised in a recently held meeting of the National Nutrition Council, said a government official.

“We have zeroed in on Khairabad block in Sitapur. The WCD ministry and a committee formed by Niti Ayog are still working out the guidelines of how to conduct the survey and cash transfers,” an official aware of the matter told ET, adding that the final date for the commencement of the pilot shall be finalised once the guidelines are drafted.

Implemented by the former UPA government in 2013, DBTs have become a part of major flagship schemes of the Modi government. These include subsidy schemes for cooking gas, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS), Ayushman Bharat, fertilizer subsidy and various scholarships.

As per the latest government data, the Centre claimed to have saved Rs 51,664.85 crore in 2018-19 through direct transfer of subsidies to genuine beneficiaries.

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