Balamrutam programme suffers
Q. In 2013, Balamrutam a child nourishment programme was launched in which state?- Published on 19 Jan 16a. Andhra Pradesh
b. Karnataka
c. Tamil Nadu
d. Kerala
ANSWER: Andhra Pradesh
In 2013, then government of united Andhra Pradesh had launched the project, under which children enrolled with Anganwadis were given Balamrutam - a mixture of rice, wheat, red gram, millets and milk powder. The project was aimed at supplying quality diet to infants enrolled in Anganwadi centres. AP Foods located in the present Telangana State was supplying ‘Balamrutam’ to the infants across the State. In June 2014, Andhra Pradesh was divided and AP Foods was renamed Telangana Foods and supply of ‘Balamrutam’ has been stopped to AP since then. A similar organisation has not been created by AP so far. The worst sufferers are children in the six months - six years age group in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Officials of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) and doctors said that poor quality of diet was one among the reasons for the increasing Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) in the country. IMR among infants below six months due to malnourishment was 129 in India.
