MUMBAI: A new Child Relief and You report has put Mumbai on the top of a list of cities in Maharashtra in cases of child malnutrition and wasting.
While the state's average is 15 per cent of the child population, a whopping 20 per cent of Mumbai's children suffer from acute malnutrition. The CRY report, released on Monday, indicates that malnutrition is no longer confined to the state's tribal areas, but is prevalent in metros as well.
The survey, conducted by CRY between 2011 and 2015 in Dharavi, Kurla, Mankhurd and Govandi, showed an incidence of 15 per cent of malnutrition among children. CRY organization executive Mamta Sen, in a press conference on Monday, said the situation could worsen if the government did not look seriously into the matter. Sneh Foundation’s Venesa D’ souza and Kumar Ninayi were also present in the conference.
Sen said that the incidence of acute malnutrition and wasting among the children in these city areas was 18 per cent before CRY commenced working in the areas, provided meals, counseling, medicines and maintaining door-to-door records. This has brought the malnutrition rates down from 18 to 13 per cent in the last few years, she said. The government now needs to initiate measures like providing healthy meals, affordable medicines, counseling, food security and health awareness programmes to bring about change, she said.
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