IT city's dark underbelly: Just 7.4% of kids under two get adequate diet

A mere 7.4% children aged below two years received an adequate diet in Bengaluru, according to the district fact sheets of the National Family Health Survey-5 (NFHS-5).

The figures, released by the government of India on Tuesday, are worse than the situation five years ago, when only 13.9% children were receiving proper nutrition. Bengaluru is one of 342 districts for which government had released data.

The survey says the percentage of total children aged 6-23 months receiving an adequate diet has fallen. Children under five years who are stunted in the city is 31.3%, an increase from 28.1% in NFHS-4, while the number of underweight children has gone up to 28.1%, from 26.8%.

While the Public Distribution System (PDS) and the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY), which provide rations to families, can be accessed by only those having BPL cards, the state-funded Ksheera Bhagya scheme covers children belonging to families that do not possess BPL cards.

Before schools were closed in March this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, children studying in government-run schools were being provided with a hot glass of milk in the morning under Ksheera Bhagya and a hot-cooked meal under the Akshara Dasoha (mid-day meals) scheme.

“For the period March-May, the government provided milk powder to children from the existing stocks under the Ksheera Bhagya scheme and dry rations as an alternative to Akshara Dasoha scheme. Both were then discontinued and neither dry rations, nor milk/milk powder was provided from June onwards,” said Sylvia Karpagam, a public health researcher.

“After a group of citizens wrote to the Principal Secretary, Department of Primary and Secondary Education, and the matter was raised in the High Court of Karnataka, the government issued orders to provide dry rations but refused to resume Ksheera Bhagya scheme,” she added.

Earlier this month, a group of 77 nutritionists, doctors, activists, lawyers and citizens had urged the chief minister to resume providing milk-milk powder to schoolchildren under Ksheera Bhagya for government-run and government-aided schools for all pending months since June and months till the school are open.

Several children in government-run schools depend on the 150 ml of hot milk provided under the Ksheera Bhagya scheme for protein, vitamins, and minerals. The scheme was started in Karnataka in 2013-14.