Three districts in Maharashtra have reported 1,274 child malnutrition deaths in the past 10 months, Minister of State for Women and Child Welfare Vidya Thakur informed the State council on Monday.
The three districts, according to Ms. Thakur, are Nandurbar (662 deaths), Palghar (418 deaths ) and Thane (194 deaths). “These cases have almost doubled in Thane’s Bhiwandi area despite a number of initiatives taken by the State government. We are taking a number of measures to reduce the cases,” she said.
“The number of children with less than average weight was 286 in 2013 in Bhiwandi-2 project area and this jumped to 497 in 2014,” she added, accepting that the number of children dying due to malnutrition was alarming.
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However, Council chairman Health Minister Dr. Deepak Sawant to reply on the issue as it also involves his ministry.
“We have started keeping an account of pregnant women in Melghat since January. With the data it has become easy to know if they are receiving adequate help and care. The monitoring has helped and in March the death rate among pregnant women was brought down to zero,” he said, explaining the initiatives taken by his ministry in Melghat, a tribal area in Amaravati district that has high malnutrition rate among children.