Child nutrition and poverty in South India: noon meals in Tamil Nadu

This book is dedicated to the late Bernard Schaffer and takes his aphorism - 'policy is what it does' - into the realm of food and nutrition in Tamil Nadu State. Interventions classified as for nutrition become employment, educational and social welfare interventions on the ground. Interventions other than those classified as nutritional such as the public distribution scheme and public policy on the consumption and taxation of alcohol - are seen on the ground to have as important effects on household nutrition as do nutrition interventions proper.
The book contrasts MGR's famous Noon Meals Scheme with the World Bank's Nutrition Project and describes the social impact of the public distribution system and of policy on alcohol both at the State level and with respect to two contrasting villages. The social characteristics of poor and inadequately fed households are analysed. The experience of the State of access to these food and nutrition interventions by poor mothers and of allocating food by village-level State employees is chronicled. The costs and benefits of excluding the neediest children are commented upon.
The book is the only such evaluation of the Noon Meals Scheme. It has been written for administrators, and for those interested in the political economy of food. It ought to be of interest to students and practitioners of all social science disciplines and of applied nutrition.