PM: 42% Malnutrition childrens, National shame

New Delhi,January 10: India has the highest number of stunted children in the world. Almost 42 per cent of the children in the country numbering over 61 million are malnourished and stunted according to the Hunger and Malnutrition Report released by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi on Tuesday.
The report says that one in three malnourished children in the world is an Indian.
The Prime Minister's called the findings a national shame while pointing out that only one in five Indian children had acceptable levels of nutrition. The report reveals that malnutrition is extremely severe in 73,0000 households in 112 districts in seven of the poorest states.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called malnutrition in the country "a national shame" on Tuesday as he released a major survey that found 42% of children under five were underweight.
"The problem of malnutrition is a national shame," the Prime Minister said while releasing the first-ever citizens' report on child malnutrition.
The statistics in the HUNGaMA (Hunger and Malnutrition) report say that every third malnourished child on the planet is an Indian. The report, on the survey conducted by Naandi Foundation, has been made at the insistence of the Citizens' Alliance against Malnutrition.
Manmohan Singh said that the government cannot rely solely on the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) to tackle malnutrition. "Despite impressive growth in our GDP, the level of malnutrition is unacceptably high," he said.
Pointing out that India had not succeeded in reducing the levels of malnutrition fast enough, he said, "Though the ICDS continues to be our most important tool to fight malnutrition, we can no longer rely solely on it."
"What concerns me is that 42 per cent of our children are still underweight. This is an unacceptably high occurrence," he said.
"Despite impressive growth in our GDP, the level of under-nutrition in the country is unacceptably high. We have also not succeeded in reducing this rate fast enough," the 79-year-old prime minister added.
Singh said the findings of the report by an alliance of non-government organisations were both "worrying and encouraging."
Malnutrition among children had come down, he said, but remained an "unacceptably high occurrence."
"What concerns me is that 42% of our children are still underweight," he added.
The Prime Minister has announced multi-sectoral programmes for 200 districts that have high malnutrition levels.
100 worst districts are in the poorer states. "The result of the survey is both worrying and encouraging," the Prime Minister said.

Agencies