The development of any country is based on the development of the children of that country, but children can develop only when they are fully nurtured. But still many children in the country are still malnourished. According to government data, currently more than 33 lakh children in India are malnourished. More than half of these, ie 17.7 lakh children, are severely malnourished. The most severely malnourished children are in Maharashtra, Bihar and Gujarat. The Ministry of Women and Child Development has given this information in response to an RTI. The ministry, in response to an RTI query by the news agency, said that it is compiling data from 34 states and union territories. According to which a total of 33,23,322 children are malnourished in the country.
The number of malnourished children is increasing rapidly in the country, revealed in RTI
The ministry estimates that the corona pandemic may exacerbate the health and nutritional crisis of the poorest of the poor. Expressing concern over this, the ministry said that as on October 14, 2021, 17.76 lakh children in India were severely malnourished (SAM) and 15.46 lakh children were malnourished (MAM). Although these figures are very worrying, they become even more worrying when compared to the figures of last November. Between November 2020 and October 14, 2021, the number of SAM children increased by 91% percent from 9,27,606 (9.27 lakh) to 17.76 lakh.
Maharashtra has the highest number of malnourished children, followed by Bihar and Gujarat. Quoting nutrition tracker, an RTI reply said Maharashtra had the highest number of 6.16 lakh malnourished children, of whom 1,57,984 were malnourished and 4,58,788 were severely malnourished. Bihar ranks second in the list with 4,75,824 lakh malnourished children. While Gujarat is at number three, the total number of malnourished children in Gujarat is 3.20 lakh. This includes 1,55,101 (1.55 lakh) MAM children and 1,65,364 (1.65 lakh) SAM children.