Mumbai: The NGO Praja Foundation released its report on the health of children in Anganwadis and civic schools in Mumbai on Monday. The report revealed that the number of ‘underweight’ students in Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) schools fell from 73,112 in 2016-17 to 11,720 in 2017-18, an 84 per cent reduction in one year.
The report highlights the status of child nutrition through RTI data of Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme and school health programme of the MCGM.
According to the report, the highest number of underweight students in MCGM schools was recorded in M/E ward in 2013-14. In 2015-16, 64,681 students were found ‘malnourished’ through MCGM school health check-ups. Meanwhile, in 2016-17 the H/W ward had the third lowest per cent of underweight students, but in 2017-18 it has the highest per cent of underweight students, followed by R/C and M/E.
Under ICDS, the average underweight per cent of children in Mumbai has been almost constant at 18 per cent from 2013-14 to 2017-18. The report also revealed that there was a shortfall of 89 Anganwadi workers and 754 Anganwadi helpers under ICDS in 2017-18.
Milind Mhaske, director at Praja said, “While the RTI data in 2015-16 showed 64,681 ‘malnourished’ students; whereas in 2016-17 asking for the number of malnourished students in MCGM schools, the reply from the medical officer (schools), MCGM was: No malnourished students found in MCGM schools in 2016-17.”
“If the number of underweight students in MCGM has fallen so dramatically, why did the municipal commissioner give an extra allocation of '27.38 crores for nutritive supplementary meals in MCGM schools from the academic year 2018-19?” added Mr Mhaske.
Meanwhile, MCGM officials said, “We have allocated extra budget to cater the cases related to nourishment issues, it includes good amount of protein-based diet with vital nutrients. The results are in front of you i.e. 84 per cent reduction in one year related to underweight issues.”
