BHOPAL: The CAG report is a pointer to the horrific situation obtaining in the state vis-à-vis malnourished children. It says that the government failed to bring down the number of severely-malnourished children. The percentage of such children in the state was 12.6 per cent and the state government had set a target of bringing it down to five per cent. However, even now severely-malnourished children form 9.2 per cent of the total child population of the state. As many as 11,000 villages in the state do not have Aaganwadis and this is also responsible for the poor nutritional status of children, the report said. The report said that 37,000 beneficiaries were not provided supplementary nutritious food in Aaganwadis. This happened as nutritious food was either not supplied or was supplied in less than adequate quantities. The CAG has held the govt responsible for it.
The IMR and MMR in the state are 51 and 221 respectively. These were to be brought down to 27 and 109 respectively. However, despite spending more than Rs 5,500 crores over the last five years under NHRM, the state government could not achieve the targets. The report also says that HIV and VDRL tests were not conducted properly on pregnant women. Around 28 per cent women were discharged from government within less than 40 hours of delivery, leading to maternal deaths.
