Malnutrition still remains a serious problem in India. The Covid pandemic has also made the situation of malnutrition in the country more worrying. According to the Global Hunger Index 2020 report, India is at number 94 in the list of 107 countries with a score of 27.2, which is considered very serious. According to the World Health Organization and the famous health magazine Lancet, every second woman in the country is a victim of anemia.
At the same time, every third child in the country is underdeveloped or of short stature. Apart from this, every fourth child in India is a victim of malnutrition. According to the Ministry of Women and Child Development, more than 9.3 lakh ‘severely malnourished’ children have been identified in the country.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a big announcement on this serious issue of malnutrition from the Red Fort on the occasion of Independence Day this year. He said that poor families would be given rice mixed with vitamins, iron and other nutrients by the year 2024 through government schemes. Its goal is to remove nutritional deficiency from a large population of the country.
During the monsoon session, important information was given by the Ministry of Women and Child Development in the Rajya Sabha regarding malnourished children in the country. Union Minister Smriti Irani said that according to the ICSD-RRS portal (till November 30, 2020), more than 9.3 lakh ‘severely malnourished’ children between 6 months and 6 years of age have been identified in the country. Of these, the worst situation is in Uttar Pradesh where 3, 98,359 are severely malnourished. It is followed by Bihar, where 2,79,427 children are suffering from severe malnutrition.
Bihar and Uttar Pradesh also have the highest population of children in the country. According to the 2011 census data, there are 2.97 crore children in the age group of 0-6 years in Uttar Pradesh, while the number of such children in Bihar is 1.85 crore.
Also, Smriti Irani had informed in the Rajya Sabha, under government schemes, nutritious food is provided to these ‘severely malnourished’ children. For this, the ministry has provided financial assistance of Rs 5,312.7 crore to all the states and union territories of the country from 2017-18 to 2020-21. Out of this, till March 31, Rs 2,985.5 crore has been used.
According to an estimate, 68 percent of the deaths of children under 5 years of age in the country are victims of malnutrition. The country suffers a loss of Rs 7400 crore every year due to malnutrition, disease, death and loss of productivity.
In this era of pandemic, the situation of malnutrition has become more serious due to interruption in mid-day meal and financial crisis in the country. According to the Center for Science and Environment’s State of India’s Environment 2021 annual report, 375 million Indian children in the age group of 0 to 14 years will be affected for a long time due to the COVID-19 pandemic. These children may have to face malnutrition, illiteracy and many other problems.
Maharashtra ranks third in terms of severely malnourished children, where 70,665 children are victims of it. It is followed by Gujarat (45,749) and Chhattisgarh (37,249). Odisha (15,595) is sixth, Tamil Nadu (12,489) seventh, Jharkhand (12,059) eighth, Andhra Pradesh (11,201) ninth and Telangana (9045) tenth in this list.
Apart from this, 7218 children are suffering from severe malnutrition in Assam, 6899 in Karnataka, 6188 in Kerala and 5732 in Rajasthan.