Mumbai: An Right To Information (RTI) query by the non-governmental organisation, Praja Foundation, on the health status of children in anganwadis and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) schools, yielded this startling reply on Monday: There were no malnourished children in anganwadis and municipal schools in 2016-17. The number of malnourished children dropped from 64,681 in 2015-16 to 0 in 2016-17, with a heavy, 84 per cent drop in underweight children.
A reply to the RTI query also states the number of underweight students in BMC schools dropped from 73,112 in 2016-17 to 11,720 in 2017-18, an 84 per cent drop. “It is good there has been a drop in the number of malnourished children. But such a drastic decrease raises many questions,” researchers felt.
Nitai Mehta, trustee of Praja Foundation said, according to the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme, the percentage of underweight children from 2013-14 to 2017-18 has stayed constant, at an average of 18 per cent. “It seems like some under-reporting has been done and the civic body is trying to hide the actual number of under-nourished and underweight children,” added Mehta.
He further added, in 2016-17, without any reason, the civic body had changed the reportage terminology from ‘malnourished’ to ‘underweight’ and details of the change or methods of measurement. Mahesh Palkar, education officer of the BMC said, as per international standards they had changed the methodology, to include age, height and weight. “The results have come out well because of the focussed and effective malnourished schemes run by the civic body,” added Palkar.
Just last week, the Bombay High Court had expressed shock over the deaths of 72 infants due to malnutrition in Melghat from January to September. The court had also asked the government whether any high ranking bureaucrat had ever visited tribal areas to understand the ground reality.