Jeevanbima Nagar has most malnourished children

In a bid to highlight the prevalence of malnutrition in Bangalore, non-governmental organisation Child Rights and You (CRY) submitted a report card on the issue to Child Development Protection Officers (CDPOs) of the areas surveyed recently.

Data was collected for the report ‘Malnutrition in Bangalore’ by CRY Public Action Groups (PAG), which cover Madiwala, Koramangala, Yeshwantpur and Jeevanbima Nagar.

A release from CRY said data had been collected from anganawadis in all the four PAG areas from the official records of children maintained by them.

They then met the CDPOs of the four areas to hand over the report findings which show how two children died in the city owing to malnutrition between June 2013 and January 2014.

Highest number

The report shows that the Jeevanbima Nagar division has the highest number of malnourished children (69), followed by Koramangala (38), Yeshwantpur (21) and Madiwala (four).

Koramangala had the highest number of ‘severely underweight children’ (32), followed by Jeevanbima Nagar (19), Yeshwantpur (seven) and Madiwala (two).

Poor response

Highlighting the findings of the report, Thangamma Monnappa, senior manager, CRY Volunteer Action, said, “the report points to the lack of a dedicated response from the State in ensuring better tracking and enabling better access to nutritional and health entitlements.”

Lack of awareness

Mr. Monnappa further noted that the lack of awareness amongst parents to these entitlements was alarming. “The idea to take the report to the respective CDPOs is to apprise the concerned officers of the ongoing crisis and to get a response from them for immediate action,” he said.