National Campaign on Nutrition for Dignity (NCND)

National Confederation of Dalit Organisations (NACDOR) is the national platform of more than 2000 organisations, led by Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and other excluded and marginalized communities spread over 23 states in India. NACDOR is extensively active on the social and development issues of the Scheduled Castes & Scheduled Tribes Communities. It is not affiliated with any political party. As part of its work on development issues of Scheduled Castes & Scheduled Tribes, it has taken up the issues of malnutrition very seriously and has initiated a campaign called National Campaign in Nutrition for Dignity (NCND) in 30 districts of 05 states in India.

Aim of the Campaign

The proposed campaign is aimed at significantly improving the quality of and increase the coverage of the government programs targeted at Dalits Communities through sustained advocacy and demand creation, supported by a robust research and evidence base, especially focused on maternal and infant and young child nutrition and government's schemes for improving nutrition services delivery to the community. The campaign will work towards mainstreaming of nutrition security for excluded communities, especially amongst the Dalit Community and set in motion a National Agenda for Action.

The campaign will be implemented at the national and state level with basic objective of mainstream Dalit issues into National Planning Agenda and Establish a National Coalition of Stakeholders to address nutrition security for excluded communities. NACDOR shall engage with a wide spectrum of stakeholders to establish a National Coalition that shall evolve to function as the primary platform to advocate for improved nutrition governance, to guide and direct efforts to establish independent research and evidence base, and generally to mainstream the nutrition security agenda across all relevant platforms in the country. NACDOR shall enable the creation of an appropriate platform for Dalit leaders from across the country to interface, and share knowledge.

The Campaign has a plan to intervene at community and local government level with objectives of strengthening community and social structures to interact with Government programs to enhance the quality and effectiveness of service delivery and increase the reach of public funded programs to improve access and nutrition. Simultaneously, the campaign has plan to intervene at the family and community level and conduct a social audit to document and highlight the key issues impacting excluded communities in terms of public service delivery, especially that of the Integrated Child Development Services, the Mid Day Meal and the Public Distribution System.

National Level

As part of the campaign, NACDOR as a national level platform shall engage with policy makers and key ministries to ensure that policy making, budgetary outlays and implementation design necessarily factor in issues specific to Dalit Communities. NACDOR shall deepen its engagement and advocate with Government Agencies and Ministries such as the Planning Commission on issues related to nutrition governance and budgetary outlays.

Key Advocacy Issues of National Campaign in Nutrition for Dignity

Nutrition Governance and Budgetary Outlays
Proper Implementation of Scheduled Caste Special Component Plan and Tribal Sub Plan
Create focus on exclusion - equity issues in nutrition security
Mainstream Nutrition into agenda of respective ministries such as Ministries of Social Justice and Empowerment, Ministry of Tribal Affairs and Minority Affairs
Increase the coverage of programme under Ministry of Women and Child Development, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Food Supply for improve the quality of service delivery and Integrate Dalit and Tribal Personnel and agencies in their delivery and monitoring mechanism
For quick redress and tracking mechanism on discrimination and exclusionary practices and negligence in the implementation of ICDS / MDM / PDS by approaching to National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, National Women Commission, National Human Rights Commission for Scheduled Caste and National Commission for Scheduled Tribe.

State Level

The campaign shall engage at State level where efforts will be intensified in 05 states Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh as well as NACDOR extend its scope to 5 other states of Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Haryana, Gujrat and Maharashtra. NACDOR shall initiate activities to build a bottom up movement through consultation and advocacy within the Dalit Communities.

NACDOR will also drive the Nutrition Security Agenda through formation of State Nutrition Campaign Committee. The purpose of establishment of a State Nutrition Campaign Committee is to provide a forum for exchange of ideas, communication channel and resource center for issues related to malnutrition in general while disseminating of the status report on implementation of the government programme. This campaign committee will function as a vibrant forum and take up the issues of Dalits, Adivasis and vulnerable groups in addressing the nutrition and other related agenda. The state Nutrition Campaign Committee is proposed to track the status of nutrition at grass root level as well as meet with the concerned government ministry to push for the needed reform.

Grass Root Level

National campaign on Nutrition for Dignity (NCND) shall engage with Dalits / Adivasis leaders at Grass Root Level and works towards promotion of Dalit community leadership by activating, motivating and capacitating them on nutrition issues. At the Grass root level NACDOR shall empower the Nutrition Security Fellows (Dalits / Adivasis Leaders) through capacity building to reach out to their respective communities and act as agents of change. NCND shall develop a framework for Social audit, which shall highlight the issues related to government's service delivery at the community level and conduct social audits. As part of campaign, NACDOR has plan to undertake awareness campaign and social audits on Nutrition in 210 Gram Panchayats of 30 districts across 05 states. The purpose of the Social Inclusion Audit processes is to understand ICDS / MDM / PDS implementation, structure, and assess the impact of the schemes with respect to its primary objectives of improvement in the status of nutrition among SC / ST and other socially excluded communities. The other purpose is to formulate a model for the introduction of structured Social Inclusion Audit of Nutrition Security Specific scheme of ICDS / MDM / PDS in collaboration with the associated state government department.

National Campaign on Nutrition for Dignity is expected that the campaign will result in the following key outcomes

A National Coalition in place and empowered to advocate for better governance of public service delivery targeted at excluded communities
A National Nutrition Security Vision Plan will be developed in close collaboration with the Government and other National Stakeholders.
The Central Government and 05 state governments will take cognizance of NACDOR's representations in their decisions to improve the nutrition services and the access of Dalit Families to these services.