Over 4,000 children were found to be suffering from acute malnutrition in Mumbai till August this year, a Maharashtra minister told the state Legislative Council on Thursday, according to PTI.
State Women and Child Development Minister Yashomati Thakur gave the data in response to a question by Congress Member of Legislative Council Bhai Jagtap.
“As on August this year, 4,194 children were found suffering from acute malnutrition in Mumbai city,” Thakur said. “Maximum cases were found in Dharavi, Malvani, Mankhurd and Govandi areas.”
The minister added that a nutrition rehabilitation centre has been set up at the city’s Shatabdi Hospital to provide medication to children with acute malnutrition. She said that the government is also implementing other schemes for malnourished children and their mothers.
Severe acute malnutrition among children is defined as very low weight for height, or a mid-upper arm circumference of less than 115 millimetres, or by the presence of nutritional oedema, according to a document by the National Rural Health Mission.
Moderate acute malnutrition is defined as moderate wasting or mid-upper arm circumference of more than 115 millimetres but less than 125 millimetres.
In 2010, the National Human Rights Commission had taken suo motu cognisance of a report in the Hindustan Times that claimed that 16 children died due to malnutrition and related illnesses at the Shivaji Nagar slum in Govandi.
Govandi is located in Mumbai’s M-East ward, which has the city’s lowest human development indices.
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