Shocking apathy
“Women should handle Nutrition schemes.”
The severity of malnourishment of newborn infants and children in Karnataka’s Yadgir district is truly shocking. A study by the Department of Health and the Department of Women and Child Development has revealed that around 405 children in the district are undernourished, over half of them in Surapura taluk. More than the spread of malnourishment it is its severity in new born children that is most troubling. Two-year old children here are so frail that they weigh less than a healthy new born infant. Officials blame their malnourishment on poverty. The children get just one meal a day – that provided in the anganwadi. Intense poverty stands in the way of parents providing their children with another meal.
Malnutrition in the 0-6 age group is particularly damaging. It can cause death of the child. Over half of all deaths among children in India are caused by malnutrition. Besides, it impacts physical, cognitive, emotional and mental development of the child. Malnourished children do less well at school. They do not reach their full potential, severely restricting their chances for later employment. Growth retardation that occurs in the first two years of a child’s life cannot be reversed. Such children grow up to be malnourished adults and are more at risk of contracting diseases.
Girls especially become anaemic and weak mothers and in turn give birth to wasted children. The impact of malnourishment is thus felt across generations. Going by the large number of food and nutrition programmes run by the government and NGOs in North Karnataka, Yadgir’s children should not be malnourished. Indications are clear that all is not well with these programmes. Food that children are entitled to is not reaching them and corruption is rampant.
Women in India are increasingly moving away from breast feeding. Especially in rural India, mothers are forced to go work in the fields within days of delivering their babies. In the process, infants are being denied nourishing mother’s milk.
The government needs to spread awareness on the importance of breast feeding. Besides, it must look into the implementation of the Integrated Childhood Development Service (ICDS). Are ICDS centres easily accessible to the people of Yadgir? Will the nutrition programmes in anganwadis work more efficiently if they are taken away from exploitative and corrupt contractors and handed over to groups of local women to run? Children are being denied a chance at survival and a healthy life. They deserve better.
