NEW DELHI: The ongoing Vitamin A supplement programme in Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal and Jharkhand has drawn flak from some physicians and health watchers in the country who claim that the recipients under the scheme aren't often told about the exact nature of these programmes.

Accusing those in charge of implementing the programme of "misrepresentation of facts presented to the recipients under the scheme", experts point out that there is an urgent need to be transparent about the actual input that "affects people's lives directly".

Quoting a USAID publication -- Dissemination Meeting on Monitoring and Evaluation Findings of Biannual VAS/RI Round (December 2004) Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal and Jharkhand -- medical experts note that in the regions where Vitamin A syrup is administered to children, over 50 per cent are not given the correct dose of the vitamin according to their age and only 35 per cent mothers and caretakers know what their child is being given.

They add that the scenario is no different in other States of the country receiving help under the programme.

``A report presented before the Assam Human Rights Commission has stated that no Vitamin A should be administered to sick or ailing child except after examination of its fitness by a doctor to take Vitamin A and a medical expert, namely a doctor, should be in charge of a booth to monitor and for this purpose the programme should be worked out phase-wise if required,'' says Professor Umesh Kapil of the Department of Gastro-enterology and Human Nutrition at the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences here.

Speaking about the loopholes in the programme, he adds: "Agencies working here need to understand that in our country 47 per cent children suffer from moderate grade of under-nutrition. Subjecting these under-three children to repeated episodes of increased intra-cranial tension could contribute to further retardation of their brain development. The solution to our problem must be food-based and not drug-based.''

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