In 2013, there were about 2,700 Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) children in Medak district alone. The figure has increased substantially though exact numbers are not available.
This was confirmed with recent reports of malnutrition among the pregnant. It was stated that at least 40 per cent of pregnant women were anaemic and 10 per cent of them were severe cases.
In a bid to curb the trend, the Nutrition Rehabilitation Centre (NRC) was set up at the district hospital in 2013 and tasked with supplying nutritional supplements to needy children.
However, for the past four months, the NRC has not been doing so, for reasons best known to the officials concerned.
The figuresWhile 272 children were treated at the NRC in 2013, the number stood at 181 for the first 10 months of 2014.
“Medicines are not being supplied for the past four months. Children who were being brought here are supplied with only food, and hence many parents are desisting from doing so,” said an official in the medical department on condition of anonymity.
Despite fundsIt was informed that the NRC had also released funds to the tune of Rs.5 lakh for this purpose but medicine supply was not restored.
Even though the anganwadis were entrusted the job of identifying SAM children and bringing them to the NRC, it was not being done. Tapes marked red, yellow and green used to classify the malnutrition in children were also not being used properly.
Lack of coordinationThe lack of coordination between the Central Government-sponsored Integrated Child Development Scheme and the Health Department were to blame, it was stated.
“The figures will speak for themselves. If we are able to treat only 453 children out of the total 2,700 children identified in 2013 alone, what about the children added later to the existing figures? What will be their fate? Will it not add to untimely death of some? Are we as a whole not responsible for this?”, asked an official annoyed with the prevailing conditions.
