Indore (Madhya Pradesh): Tall claims by the women and child development department in the division that they are working tirelessly for eradicating malnourishment among kids fell flat when recent data for the first three months of the year revealed that Indore division has the maximum number of malnourished kids (0 to 6 years) in the state.
The data collected is for January to March and it includes SAM (Severely Acute Malnutrition) and MAM (Moderate Acute Malnutrition) children.
According to data, there are 79,233 children registered as malnourished in the state and Indore division tops it with 22,721 children followed by Jabalpur and Sagar divisions having 10,663 and 9,702 malnourished children, respectively.
The data that was released on Friday has sent alarm bells ringing within the department at the local level and now all these kids will be identified and put under the Mukhya Mantri Bal Arogya Saksham scheme and there are also plans to re-introduce the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Child Health and Nutrition Campaign.
It is expected that a combination of these two schemes will improve the alarming situation.
The stark reality comes soon after claims made by the department, which later turned out to be false, that there were zero cases of malnourishment in the Indore district. Of course, it has to be admitted that senior officials in the WCD directorate in Bhopal had themselves red-flagged the claim and had called for a fresh survey. The new survey was carried out all over the state from May 11 to 21.
SAM and MAM
According to Meenakshi Harvansh, CDPO, Zone 7, it might take up to six months for a child suffering from SAM to become ‘normal’.
Number Of Malnourished Children In The State (Division Wise)
