Under an integrated child development scheme (ICDS) of the Delhi government, 778 children and eight pregnant women enrolled in the scheme died in 2010.

This information was obtained from the women and child department of the Delhi government by the applicant Manish Bhatnagar, a resident of north Delhi.

The RTI reply says “As per the record of the number of children died in NCT of Delhi who were enrolled in ICDS scheme, 882 children died between 1st January 2009 and 31st December 2009 and 775 children died between 1st January 2010 and 31st December 2010."

It further reads: As per the number of women (pregnant and nursing) who have died in NCT of Delhi who were enrolled in ICDS scheme were seven between 1st January 2009 and 31st December 2009 and eight between 1st January 2010 and 31st December 2010.

Under the ICDS scheme, nutritious food and health facilities are provided to underprivileged women and children. It was launched to improve the nutritional status of children below the age of six years and to reduce the incidence of mortality, morbidity, malnutrition, and school dropout.

An ngo Centre for Social Research which reviewed the working of the scheme provided feedback to the government but no action was taken on their recommendations.

“This is absolutely shocking data. There is a need for a systematic implementation of the scheme. The government is supposed to look after the nutritional needs of the recipients of the scheme,” said Ranjana Kumari, CSR director.

She added that the cause of deaths is not known yet but those responsible for the deaths should be severely punished.

Regular health check-ups and immunization is also a part of the scheme which was started in 1975. ICDS has 55 projects running in various regions of Delhi.

Women and child development department director Rajiv Kale said to IANS earlier, "The mortality rate is not so high. We are covering approximately 7,27,000 children and only around one percent of them died."

“It is the largest scheme of the Delhi government and a paper should be published in the parliament about this,” said Kumari.

Delhi government’s women and child development minister Kiran Walia was not available for comment.