Indore (Madhya Pradesh): Creating a dent in the image of Indore, the recent updated status of stunted and underweight children in the city shows an alarming situation that has caused worry among WCD officials in the city as over 45% of children in the city come under the stunting category while 23 % are underweight. Adding to the worry is the fact that the count of children under wasting is 7 per cent with another 7% being overweight.
The survey by the Women and Child Development Department has been stratified on the nation’s Poshan Tracker website which categorises children under four major categories i.e. wasting, stunting, underweight and overweight.
Even more worrisome is the fact that the city has the least number of stunted children in the division with Alirajpur and Barwani with over 66 and 65 per cent of stunted children respectively having the undesirable record of most stunted children in the division.
The data represents growth monitoring status of children in the city and has been taken from the Poshan Tracker Dashboard |
“The stratification of the data shows that there exists a small percentage of children in the overweight category and a separate diet has to be created for them. The diet is not the only problem but also the type of activities a child performs or undernourishment that the child might have suffered. The recent ongoing Poshan month will not only be catering to the children under the SAM or MAM category but aims to concentrate on a wide range of prospects, “said, Ramniwas Budholiya, project development officer, WCD.
Say YES to Apple and NO to Chips
The major issue faced by the project offices is to maintain and regulate the diet children consume even though nutrition packets are being distributed to give them sufficient nutrition. Meenakshi Harvansh, child development project officer, Zone 7, said, “The department provides poshan packets and nutritional diet to the children regularly, however, we have no control over the diet they consume afterwards. After multiple home visits, it was found that the children happen to eat chips and other unhealthy products. We always advise a child’s parent to buy them an apple rather than chips.”
7% children prone to chronic and recurrent malnutrition
The poshan tracker app revealed that a total of 7 per cent children in the city are wasted, which means that they are suffering from chronic and recurrent malnutrition. The district’s low rank in the category is all the more embarrassing because Barwani, a tribal district that is part of the Indore division, has the least number of wasted and overweight children.
