Other States - Madhya Pradesh   

Over a million malnourished kids in M.P., say experts

BHOPAL: Global experts on management of severe acute malnutrition Michael Golden and Yvonne Grellety on Monday said here that over a million children in Madhya Pradesh were “severely wasted (undernourished) and the hospitals, health centres and nutrition rehabilitation centres (NRCs) do not have the capacity to treat this number of children.

Professor Golden and Dr. Grellety made this observation while talking to senior State Government officials, doctors and media-persons after concluding a week-long visit to Shivpuri to study the working of the NRCs in that district. They were accompanied by Victor Aguayo, Unicef-India’s Section Chief for Nutrition and the Nutrition specialist with Unicef-Bhopal, Vandana Agrawal.

The nutrition experts said that during their tour in Madhya Pradesh they were impressed by the commitment and high quality of human resource comprising of doctors, nurses, anganwadi workers. They are extremely optimistic due to their exceptional quality of work and their capacity to treat children.

But they also pointed out that since the undernourishment prevalence figures are too high, it is not the hospitals, health centre or the NRCs alone that can tackle the crisis. The problem will also have to be dealt with at the community level.

Participating in deliberations, Dr. Aguayo said that about 80 per cent of his organisation’s efforts go into prevention of malnutrition. However their priority is also to provide quality care for children with severe acute malnutrition, he added.

On the gravity of the problem of malnutrition, Dr. Aguayo said 60 per cent of the wasted children in this country live in six States. In each of the three States--Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar—there are over 1 million severely wasted children, he pointed out. Unicef’s mission is to support and scale up facility and community based care for children suffering from severe acute malnutrition (SAM).

Professor Golden He said that about 40 per cent of Indian children have a deficit in the growth nutrients that needs to be corrected. Some have such severe deficits that they are at immediate risk of death.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

SIMI leaders shifted
121 posts of sub-engineers filled
Finish all works: Shivraj Singh
Over a million malnourished kids in M.P., say experts

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu