Gujarat has increased the daily budget for hot-cooked meals served at anganwadis by 67%, raising the allocation from Rs 5.1 to Rs 8.5 per child to improve the nutritional quality and variety of food served to children aged three to six years.
The increase will cover more than 16.2 lakh children enrolled at 53,065 anganwadi centres across the state, according to an official statement. The Gujarat government will bear the additional Rs 3.4 per child per day, adding around Rs 80 crore to its annual expenditure.
The existing allocation will continue to be shared equally by the Centre and the state, the statement said. The decision has been taken under the supplementary nutrition component of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme.
Along with the higher procurement budget, the state has revised the hot-cooked meal menu. The new allocation places greater emphasis on pulses, whole green gram, chickpeas, seasonal green vegetables and fruits. The menu provides for a hot snack at 11 am and a cooked meal at 1.30 pm.
The revised daily allocation also specifies the amount to be spent on individual ingredients. Fruits have been allocated Rs 2 per child, while whole green gram will account for Rs 1.3 and tur dal for Rs 1.2. The budget also covers chickpeas, jaggery, seasonal vegetables, peanuts or sesame seeds, spices and local transportation.
The increase puts the cost of food procurement and delivery at the centre of Gujarat’s anganwadi nutrition programme. Besides determining how much food can be purchased, the allocation covers local transportation and a specified mix of ingredients, linking the state-level budget decision to the daily functioning of thousands of centres.
Anganwadis are key delivery points for supplementary nutrition under the ICDS framework, and the revised menu is intended to expand both the variety and nutritional content of meals served to children. The official statement did not provide further details on the implementation schedule, procurement arrangements or monitoring mechanism for the revised allocation.
