Low budgets for malnutrition made headlines in Madhya Pradesh last week. An opposition MLA raised the issue in the state assembly and the government reported that it was spending Rs 8 per child per day on the supplementary nutrition given to children under six years under through anganwadi centres. 

The allocation for severely malnourished children is Rs 12 per day. Media reports highlighted the irony that the budget for cows is Rs 40 per day, whereas a child gets one-fifth of this amount. In the last week of July, the Madhya Pradesh high court issued a notice to the state government in response to a PIL filed on high malnutrition in the state and the inadequacy of state response. 

Any public discussion on child nutrition and the need for greater investments is welcome. It is, in fact, shocking that despite more than a third of our young children being undernourished, this issue does not make headlines more often.

According to the Poshan Tracker data, based on regular growth monitoring of children in anganwadis, 35% of children are stunted (low height for age), 15% underweight (low weight for age) and about 5% in the severe acute malnutrition (SAM) category. From past experience, it has been seen that such monitoring data from anganwadis are usually underestimated when compared with population-based sample surveys, such as the National Family Health Survey.

While the issue has come up in Madhya Pradesh, low budgets for children’s nutrition is a national issue. While children under six years of age get food as part of the supplementary nutrition programme (SNP) at the anganwadi, those under three are given take home rations as they do not come to the centre everyday and those in the 3-6 age group are supposed to be given a snack and lunch in the centre every day, along with pre-school education. 

The SNP under anganwadis is a legal entitlement under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) and is governed by relevant rules under the Act. It is delivered through the Saksham Anganwadi (previously known as Integrated Child Development Scheme, ICDS), a centrally sponsored scheme governed by national guidelines. According to these guidelines, the per day per beneficiary cost norms for SNP for children is Rs 8, for pregnant and lactating women and adolescent girls Rs  9.50, and for severely malnourished children Rs 12. 

First, these cost norms were set in 2017 and have not been updated since then. Just by accounting for inflation (of 5% per annum), Rs 8 would be equivalent to around Rs 12 in current prices. The issue of inflation-indexing of all such cost norms has been raised repeatedly by many. 

The 365th report of the department-related parliamentary standing committee, while examining the Demand for Grants 2025-26 of the Ministry of Women and Child Development, also remarked: 

“The Committee was informed that the revision of the cost norms of the Anganwadi services was supposed to have occurred and was budgeted for in FY2020-21 but could not occur due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Committee notes the delay and welcomes the Finance Minister’s announcement in the Budget Speech for the same. It further recommends that the cost norms should be adjusted with the view to ensure provision of milk, iron and protein fortification, green leafy vegetables, and fresh fruit. In the future, the Committee recommends that the cost norms under Saksham Anganwadi and POSHAN 2.0 be linked to food price inflation levels annually”

Almost six months have passed since the finance minister’s announcement in budget 2025, but there is no news yet of any upgrading of norms. The nutritional norms under the NFSA were amended in 2023, to suggest not just calorie and protein amounts but also a number of micronutrients’ content which the SNP had to meet but even then the costs remained the same. 

As recommended by the parliamentary committee the cost norms should not only be adjusted to inflation but also updates to improve the nutritional content of the food that is given through the anganwadis. 

A back of the envelope estimate of how much one meal (lunch), as recommended by the ICMR ‘Dietary Guidelines for Indians, 2024’ for 4-6 year old children, reveals that the cost would be at least Rs 20 per child per day. And here, we are only talking about a single meal, that too for normally nourished children. 

Children who are already undernourished would also require additional input. A meal and a snack recommended by ICMR for a one-year-old (as children this age would eat smaller quantities in higher frequency) would also cost a similar amount. While there might be some savings due to economies of scale while distributing the meals at the anganwadi, these estimates give an idea of how far away from the requirement we are currently. These calculations assume that cereals will be provided for free through the PDS and do not include any cooking costs (fuel etc).

If children’s nutrition is to be taken seriously, the cost norms for the SNP must be revised upward – at least doubled – to reflect actual needs. As cliched as it may be, a ‘Viksit Bharat’ cannot be achieved when a significant share of its children are unable to reach their growth potential. 

Investment in children’s health and nutrition is one of the highest-return on public investments a country can make – and it is no charity. Invoking the pandemic as a reason to defer these allocations is quite appalling. How much longer will the state and society turn their backs on the nation’s youngest citizens?

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