Civic body’s initiative set to kick off by next week; a survey report by an NGO states Mankhurd, Govandi, Malad-Malwani are among areas of concern
BMC will start the drive next week. Representation pic
Aiming to make the country's financial capital malnutrition-free, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to start a door-to-door drive to find and treat malnutrition cases in the city.
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A survey report by NGO Praja, which was done just before the pandemic, highlighted disturbing trends about malnutrition and under-nutrition in the city. Mankhurd, Govandi, Malad-Malwani are few of the areas that have a notable number of malnutrition cases in the city.
The civic body, which is also starting a similar drive to trace tuberculosis patients in the city, plans to start the drive by next week. A senior BMC health officer, who is heading the drive, said malnourished children found in the drive will be treated at BMC-run hospitals.
"Before the pandemic, our health department used to regularly screen students. During the last screening, we found more than 7,000 students who were underweight. Now that COVID-19 cases are under control, we are starting the drive to find malnourished children," said the officer.
According to Praja's 2019 report, of 2,26,066 students from BMC-run schools who were screened, 7,383 were underweight and 1,421 were overweight, reflecting the double burden of malnutrition. The report further highlighted that 2,212 of these students had a Vitamin A deficiency, and 1,652 had a deficiency of Vitamins B, C and D, all of which are primarily caused due to nutritional deficiencies in the diet.
Another major worry apart from malnutrition is anemia or lack of healthy red blood cells that help to carry adequate oxygen to the body’s tissues. The report said that 3,106 of these students had anemia and 70% of these students were girls.
The health officer said they are in the process of finalising a plan or guideline which will help them restart the initiative. "All the anganwadis were shut during the pandemic and are likely to be open from next week. We will assign work to them. All the children found malnourished or undernourished will be given a diet accordingly,” he said.
7,000
No. of students found underweight during last BMC screening
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