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Article:
- Soumitra Ghosh, Tata Institute of Social Science, discusses how Maharashtra is a classic case of a lack of development with high level of malnutrition among children.
Important Analysis:
- Maharashtra being India’s richest state, is suffering from high level of malnutrition among children in the tribal belts.
- Despite states per capita income has doubled since 2004, its nutritional status has not made commensurate progress.
- The National Family Health Survey(NFHS) 2015-16 and 2005-06, highlighted the following pointers:
- Though stunting has declined from 46.3% to 34.4%, wasting rates have increased from 16.5% to 25.6%.
- Underweight rate (36%), has remained static in the last decade.
- This is worse than in some of the poor countries like Bangladesh(33%), Afghanistan (25%) , or Mozambique(15%).
- Every second tribal child suffers from growth restricting malnutrition due to chronic danger.
- In 2005, child malnutrition claimed 718 lives in Maharashtra’s Palghar District.
- Even after a decade of double digit economic growth (2004-05 to 2014-15), Palghar’s malnutrition status has barely improved.
- In September 2016, the National Human Rights Commission issued notice to Maharashtra government over reports of 600 children dying due to malnutrition in Palghar.
- On this, the State government promised to implement schemes like Jaccha Baccha and Integrated Child Development Services to check malnutrition.
- Even independent survey conducted in Vikramgad block of the district found that 57%, 21%, and 53% of children were stunted, wasted, and underweight respectively.
- It is generally believed that recovery from growth retardation is only possible if the affected child put on nutrient requirement diet.
- Nutrient adequacy is calculated by difference grouping of food which includes:- cereals, roots and tubers; legumes and nuts; dairy products; flesh foods; eggs; fish; dark green leafy vegetables; and other fruits and vegetables
- 26% and 57% of the children (83% put together) had food from only two/three of the eight food groups.
- While, only 17% of the children achieved a minimum level of diet diversity — they received four or more of the eight food groups.
What is stunting?
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17. Reasons for food insecurity in Maharashtra:
- Acute food insecurity in tribal households is due to loss of their traditional dependence on forest livelihood.
- State’s deepening agrarian crisis.
- Weakening of public nutrition programmes.
- State’s Budget on nutrition expenditure has drastically decline from 1.68% in 2012-13 to 0.94% in 2018-19.
- Nutritional schemes not having desired results.
18. Solutions:
- The government need to look at the root cause of the issue and finds sustainable solutions for tackling malnutrition.
- State need to focus on inclusive development by creating employment opportunities for the marginalized.