Bengaluru: The JD(S)-Congress coalition government partner is contemplating bringing changes in the 'Mathru Purna' Bhojana scheme for pregnant and lactating mother by transferring money directly to the bank account of beneficiaries. This was one of the ambitious schemes of the previous government led by Siddaramaiah.
In October last, then CM Siddaramaiah had launched this programme to meet the nutritional needs of pregnant and lactating women in rural areas. These women in rural areas used to get one nutritional meal daily for 25 days in a month. The food consisted of rice, dal with vegetable/sambar, a boiled egg and 200 ml of milk. Those who did not want egg, were given two varieties of sprouts.
This according to experts, met 40 to 45 per cent of the daily calorie, protein and calcium requirement of pregnant and lactating mothers. Nearly, 12 lakh women benefited from this programme. The food is served through Anganwadis and is provided for 15 months, from the start of pregnancy upto six months after delivery.
Recently, when Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy reviewed the progress of flagship programmes during a meeting of deputy commissioners and chief executive officers, he came to know that many pregnant and lactating women were not coming to Anganwadi centres as they were situated away from their houses and they needed to walk a long distance to have food and return home. Besides, conservative families were not ready to send the women to anganwadi centres and insisted on having it at home. As a result, the food, specially prepared for them, was going waste.
Some officials then suggested that money be transferred directly to bank accounts of these women to enable them to get food prepared at home. Public Works Department Minister H.D. Revanna opined that Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) would be a better option instead of pressurising them to come to anganwadi centres to have food. Mr Kumaraswamy reportedly said there was no question of shelving this project as it was a pet project of his predecessor.
