 bill no xiv of 2017 the  tribal  children  and  lactating  women  in maharashtra  and other  states  removal  of hunger, malnutrition and prevention of starvation deaths bill, 2017 a billto provide for the removal of hunger and malnutrition and for the prevention of starvation deaths of tribal children including adolescent and young girls and pregnant and lactating women in tribal areas of the country particularly in maharashtra through a nodal agency at the national and state levels, by formulating a national policy for the purpose and for matters connected therewith and incidental theretobe it enacted by parliament in the sixty-eighth year of the republic of  india as follows:—(2) it extends to the whole of india (3) it shall come into force with immediate effectdefinitions2 in this act, unless the context otherwise requires,—(a) "adolescent girl" means a female human being who has attained puberty and is below the age of eighteen years;5(b) "appropriate government" means in the case of  a state, the government of that state and in other cases the central government;(c) "girl child" means a female human being who is below the age of twelve years;(d) "nodal agency" means the nodal agency constituted under section 4 for the purposes of this act;10(e) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this act153 (1) notwithstanding anything contained in any other law for the time being in force, the central government shall, as soon as may be, but not later than one year of the commencement of this act, formulate and publish in the official gazette,  a national policy for the overall protection and removal of hunger, malnutrition and prevention of starvation deaths of tribal children and pregnant and lactating tribal women particularly in the tribal areas of maharashtra and shall take appropriate measures for the uniform implementation of such policynational policy for the removal of hunger malnutrition and prevention of starvation deaths of tribal children and lactating mothers(2) in particular and without prejudice to the generality of the provisions contained in sub-section (1), the national policy may include provision for,—20(a) conducting surveys, from time to time of the tribal children, pregnant women and lactating mothers in the tribal areas of maharashtra and other parts of the country who are malnourished, anaemic and underweight and maintaining district wise data thereof in such manner and with such particulars as may be prescribed;25(b) conducting periodic medical examination of every child including girl child and adolescent girls, pregnant as well as lactating mothers covered under this act and for taking such remedial measures as may be recommended by dieticians and medical authorities;30(c) making it mandatory for the appropriate government to ensure as well as provide at least two healthy meals per day, milk, seasonal fruits, folic acid and multi vitamin tablets to every malnourished or anaemic and underweight children, girl child, pregnant and lactating women covered under this act;35(d) providing medical care to the children and women covered under this act and providing sanitary napkins and proper dresses to adolescent and grown up girls covered under this act by the appropriate government in such manner as may be prescribedconstitution of a nodal agency4  (1)the central government shall, by notification in the official gazette, constitutea nodal agency consisting of a chairperson such number of members representing various fields, such number of officers and staff as may be prescribed, for the purpose of this act40(2) the salary and allowances payable to and other terms and conditions of service of the chairperson, members, officers and staff of the nodal agency and procedure to be followed by the nodal agency in discharging its functions shall be such as may be prescribed(3) the nodal agency shall,—45(a) classify tribal areas in each state as high, medium or low burden area with regard to malnutrition, anaemia, hunger, starvation deaths and such other issues as may be prescribed;(b) set malnutrition, anaemia, hunger eradication targets and time frame for each state in their tribal areas; and(c) recommend to the central government and state governments having tribal areas within their territorial jurisdiction with regard to the implementation of this act and framing of rules and regulations as it may consider necessary55 the central government shall, after due appropriation made by parliament by lawin this behalf, provide requisite funds, from time to time, to the states and union territoriesfor carrying out the purposes of this actcentral government to provide requisite fundsact to have overriding effect6 the provisions of this act and rules made thereunder shall have effect notwithstanding anything inconsistent therewith contained in any other law for the time being in force107 the provisions of this act shall be in addition to and not in derogation of any otherlaw for the time being in force dealing with the subject matter of this actact to supplementother lawspower to make rules8 the central government may, by notification in the official gazette, make rules for carrying out the purposes of this act statement of objects and reasonsour vast nation, the second most populous in the globe after china has, unfortunately, the highest number of malnourished and anaemic children including girl child, adolescent girls, women including pregnant and lactating mothers the problem is more acute in the tribal areas of our countryin maharashtra alone, every monsoon over 40,000 children slip into malnutrition in tribal dominated nandurbar due to persistent hunger, amaemia amongst the girl child, adolescent girls, pregnant women and lactating mothers is prevelant not only in nandurbar but also in almost all the tribal areas of the country starvation deaths, though generally denied by the government authorities, are also reported from time to time not only in tribal areas of maharashtra but also from other states tooon record there are at least 15 schemes to augment the nutrition of children and mothers in nandurbar but on ground, due to lack of funds for these schemes, the road out of hunger is paved with failures union ministry of women and child development implements integrated child development services (icds) scheme to control malnourishment through anganwadis but it hardly reaches in tribal areashence, it is high time to pay more and concerted attention for the removal of hunger, malnutrition, anaemia amongst the children, girl child including adolescent girls, pregnant and loctating women in tribal areas of maharastra and other parts of the country so as to prevent starvation deaths in such areashence this billrajkumar dhoot financial  memorandumclause 4 of the bill provides for sitting up of a nodal agency for the purposes of the billclause 5 of the bill makes it mandatory for the central government to provide requisite funds for carrying out the purposes of this bill the bill, if enacted will involve expenditure from the consolidated fund of india it is not possible to quantify the expenditure at this stage but it is estimated that a sum of rupee one lakh crore may involve as recurring expenditure per annum a sum of rupee fifty crore may also involve as non-recurring expenditure for creating assets for implementation of the provisions of this bill memorandum regarding delegated legislationclause 8 of the bill empowers the central government to make rules for carrying out the purposes of the bill the rules will relate to matters of details only the delegation of legislative power is of normal character———— a billto provide for the removal of hunger and malnutrition and for the prevention of starvationdeaths of tribal children including adolescent and young girls and pregnant andlactating women in tribal areas of the country particularly in maharashtrathrough a nodal agency at the national and state levels, by formulatinga national policy for the purpose and for matters connected therewithand incidental thereto————(shri  rajkumar dhoot,  mp)gmgipmrnd—1320rs(s3)—21072017