Food Secretary Sanjeev Chopra has said that the government will implement fully rice fortification programme before the scheduled target of March 2024. He said ‘we had planned to complete the universalisation of fortified PDS rice by March 2024. But, with the pace of distribution, we are hopeful of reaching the target before that and the entire PDS (rice) will be fortified ...in the next few months’. As of date, he said the Food Corporation of India (FCI) has 240 lakh tonnes of rice, of which just 12 lakh tonnes is non-fortified rice. Chopra also asserted that fortified rice is safe for people with sickle cell anaemia and thalassemia.
He explained that through PDS fortified rice only 7 mg per day of iron will be consumed while the human body can take 40-45 mg per day of iron. He said the government will also look at revising the advisory on fortified rice being harmful to people with sickle cell anaemia and thalassemia in light of new evidence. Globally, 90 countries are using fortification of food items.
He said as per the plan, in the first phase, the target was to cover ICDS and PM POSHAN in India by March 2022. Under the second phase, the plan was to extend the scheme to beneficiaries of PDS and other welfare schemes in all aspirational and high-burden districts on stunting (a total of 291 districts) by March 2023. In the third phase, the target was to cover the remaining districts of the country by March 2024. In April this year, Chopra informed that a total of 269 districts in 27 states started distributing fortified rice under PDS, achieving a 100 per cent target set for Phase II by March 2023.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his Independence Day address in 2021, said the government aims to distribute fortified rice via the government schemes by 2024. Thereafter, a scheme for the distribution of fortified rice, containing prescribed micronutrients (Iron, Folic Acid, Vitamin B12) was launched in October 2021 in a phased manner in order to address the problem of anaemia in children and women.
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