Hello,
Early Last year, researchers at NITI Aayog travelled to different parts of the country. They wanted to find out how well the Modi government’s pilot projects to test the efficacy of fortified rice were running. They came back and prepared a review report on the pilot projects, which were to be ultimately used as a springboard to serve rice fortified with micronutrients to 800 million Indians by 2024.
The Collective’s reporter Shreegireesh Jalihal has scooped the report that remains hidden from the public while the government is ploughing ahead with its plan to serve fortified rice to Indians. In the second part of his investigative series Shreegireesh reveals the leaked NITI Aayog report.
The report admits the Modi government bungled rice fortification pilots and paints an appalling picture of the ground situation. It found that more than half of the pilot project across 15 districts of different states had more or less collapsed. Without the results of the pilot projects, the government is clueless about the effects of feeding fortified rice on human health, particularly that of children.
The pilots were marred by patchy responses by states, botched quality control, lax scientific parameters, and shoddy supervision, find a report jointly written by officials of Indian government’s premier think tank NITI Aayog and the Department for Monitoring and Evaluation Office (DMEO) attached to NITI.
On the ground, they found none of the districts had in place a process to regulate the quality of premix used so that there is no underdosing or overdosing of micronutrients. Not enough labs to test if the fortified rice is safe to eat. And the food safety regulator (FSSAI), tasked with checking the quality along every step of manufacturing and supplying fortified rice, was missing in action. The government also did not conduct a survey in any of the seven districts to know the anaemia levels of people before they were forced to eat fortified rice. Therefore, it could not conclude if fortified rice intake made any difference at the end of the pilot study.
Above all, they heard complaints from the people forced to consume the fortified rice “looked different, took more time to boil and tasted insipid”.
Shreegireesh went to Jharkhand’s Khunti district where the government has begun distributing fortified rice. He found people were rejecting the grains, some called it plastic rice because it would float on top while washing. People tried burning the rice to see if it would melt like plastic.
Read the full report by our member Shreegireesh Jalihal.