Ahmedabad district tops in malnourished kids

AHMEDABAD: The state government admitted in the assembly on Wednesday that there are 2.11 lakh underweight children in Gujarat. This is the reason the state budget has allocated the highest amount (48.53%) out of the total annual development plan of Rs 79,295.11 crore, to the social sector which includes health and nutrition.
What is even more disturbing is that Ahmedabad city, where the Ahmedabad municipal corporation has an army of health workers and anganwadis, has the highest number - 26,151 - of malnourished children. Gandhinagar has 10,177 underweight kids.
During the question hour on Wednesday, as many as 13 questions were asked about the number of malnourished children in Gujarat and measures taken by the state government to tackle the problem.
Viramgam MLA Tejashri Patel wanted to know the number of malnourished children in Ahmedabad district, city and in Gandhinagar. In its reply to the question, the state government stated that in Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation area, there were 22,479 malnourished children and another 3,672 kids who were severely underweight. Outside AMC limits, Ahmedabad district had another 6,745 malnourished children out of which 595 were grossly underweight.
As per data available for 17 districts, Ahmedabad topped the chart with 32,896 malnourished children followed by Panchmahal with 24,111 kids. Malnourishment was most rampant in the tribal districts Panchmahal, Dahod and Chhota Udepur.
The state government claimed that a series of programmes had been launched in the state through anganwadi workers. Undernourished children in the age group of 6 months to three years were given take-home rations which was then cooked in anganwadi and fed to these students. The government also educates parents the benefit of nutritious diet to their children, the government said.
Officials of the state government have been adopting severely underweight children for improvement of their health.
In need of nutrition
District/corporation No of malnourished kids
Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation 26,151
Panchmahal 24,111
Dahod 23,239
Kheda 22,095
Chotta Udepur 18,173