Covid-19 3rd wave threat to kids: 'Malnutrition a huge comorbidity,' says Enakshi Ganguly

Children suffering from ‘severe acute malnutrition’ are nine times more likely to die in case of diseases due to their weakened immune system

More than 9.2 lakh children in India are ‘severely acute malnourished', with the most in Uttar Pradesh followed by Bihar, according to government data, underscoring concerns that the Covid-19 pandemic could exacerbate the health and nutrition crisis among the poorest of the poor.

An estimated 9,27,606 ‘severely acute malnourished' children aged six months to six years were identified across the country till November last year, the Women and Child Development Ministry said in response to an RTI query from PTI.

Of these, UP had 3,98,359 and Bihar 2,79,427. They are also home to the highest number of children in the country. Ladakh, Lakshadweep, Nagaland, Manipur and Madhya Pradesh reported no severely malnourished children. Except for Ladakh, none of the anganwadi centres in the other four, reported any data on the matter, according to the RTI reply.

The worry is that the numbers could not just be an underestimation but also rise in view of the ongoing pandemic with fears that the third wave could impact children more than others. "There is rise in unemployment, there is rise in an economic crisis which is bound to have repercussions on hunger and when there is hunger there will be malnutrition. The government has a clear cut protocol and they need to ramp that up," Enakshi Ganguly, co-founder of the HAQ Center for Child Rights, told PTI.

Ganguly said, "Malnutrition will be a huge comorbidity if what they are saying that children will be affected more in the next wave holds true, then malnutrition will be a huge comorbidity and how are they going to address that?"

The WHO defines ‘severe acute malnutrition' (SAM) by very low weight-for-height, or by the presence of nutritional oedema. Maharashtra reported 70,665 SAM children, followed by Gujarat at 45,749, Chhattisgarh at 37,249, Odisha at 15,595, Tamil Nadu at 12,489, Jharkhand at 12,059, Andhra Pradesh at 11,201, Telangana at 9,045, Assam at 7,218, Karnataka at 6,899, Kerala at 6,188 and Rajasthan at 5,732.

India slips 2 spots on Sustainable Dvpt Goals

India's rank has slipped by two places from last year to 117 on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted as a part of the 2030 agenda by 193 United Nations member states in 2015, a new report has said. The 2021 report revealed that India's rank was 115 last year and dropped by two places primarily because major challenges, like ending hunger and achieving food security, achieving gender equality and building resilient infrastructure, promoting inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and fostering innovation remain in the country. It ranks below Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. The overall SDG score of India is 61.9 out of 100. Jharkhand and Bihar are the least prepared to meet the SDGs by 2030.

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