RTI reply reveals grim figures on malnourished children
An RTI reply by the government has revealed that over 33 lakh children in India are malnourished, of whom over half are categorised as severely acute malnourished (SAM). Also, an increase of more than 91 per cent over the last year raises the spectre that the closing down of schools due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the resultant suspension of mid-day meals has exacerbated the existing health and nutrition crisis among the poorest of the poor.
A recent query by the news agency PTI to the Union government under the Right To Information (RTI) Act has drawn a troubling response: Over 33 lakh children in India are malnourished and more than half of them fall in the severely malnourished category.
The reply by the Women and Child Development (WCD) Ministry estimates that there are 17.76 lakh severely acute malnourished (SAM) children and 15.46 lakh moderately acute malnourished (MAM) children in the whole of India, as of October 14, 2021.
Maharashtra, Bihar and Gujarat top the malnutrition list.
The total 33.22 lakh is a compilation of data from 28 states and eight union territories, the ministry said, the numbers being registered on the Poshan tracker app developed last year as a governance tool for real-time monitoring of nutritional outcomes.
Both SAM and MAM have severe health repercussions on the health of a child. According to the WHO, children suffering from SAM have very low weight for their height, and are nine times more likely to die in case of diseases due to their weakened immune system; those suffering from MAM are also at increased risk of morbidity and mortality during childhood.
While the numbers are alarming in themselves, a comparison with last November makes them even more so: An over 91 per cent rise in SAM children between November 2020 and October 14, 2021, up from 9.27 lakh to 17.76 lakh.
Therefore, the response by the ministry has also prompted concern that the COVID-19 pandemic could exacerbate the existing health and nutrition crisis among the poorest of the poor.
“Services like ICDS (Integrated Child Development Scheme) and mid-day meals in schools have become irregular during the prolonged closure of schools. These have severely affected children living in multidimensional poverty disproportionately since they have been largely dependent on these services to fulfil their rights and entitlements,” Pooja Marwaha, CEO of Child Rights and You (CRY) told the PTI.
A note on the data collection: While last November’s figure was the sum of the numbers conveyed by the states and Union territories, the latter figure is the sum of the numbers directly entered by anganwadis on the Poshan online tracker.
According to the RTI reply quoting the Poshan tracker, in the last year, Maharashtra registered the highest number of malnourished children at 6.15 lakh—4.58 lakh SAM children and 1.57 lakh MAM children. It is followed by Bihar with 4.75 lakh malnourished children and Gujarat with 3.20 lakh.
Some of the others following the top three are Andhra Pradesh (2.76 lakh malnourished children), Karnataka (2.49 lakh), Uttar Pradesh (1.86 lakh), Tamil Nadu (1.78 lakh), Assam (1.76 lakh) and Telangana (1.52 lakh).
India has slipped to 101st position in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2021 (among 116 countries), and is now behind its neighbours Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal.
