In a shocking development, the number of malnourished children in Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) schools has increased from 30,461 (8 per cent of the total number of students) in 2013-14 to 1,30,680 (34 per cent of total number of students ) in 2015-16, according to a report prepared by the NGO Praja Foundation based on the data collated by the BMC.

According to the Praja Foundation’s report, the BMC’s own data suggests that the estimated number of malnourished children in Mumbai’s municipal schools has grown from 30,461 (8 per cent of 4,04,251 total students) in 2013-14 to 1,30,680 (34 per cent of 3,83,485 total students) in 2015-16.

“This is a huge rise of over four times in three years. It is in spite of the fact that the budget for midday meals for Class I to Class V has increased from Rs 29 crore to Rs 32 crore in the same period,” Nitai Mehta, founder and managing trustee of Praja Foundation, said at a news conference on Tuesday.

Similarly, the budget for Mid-day meals for Class VI to VIII increased from Rs 33 crore to Rs 39 crore. The utilisation of the budget, however, has seen a sharp dip from 81 per cent to 6 per cent for Class I to V. The corresponding figures for Class VI to X are 83 per cent and 64 per cent. Clearly, lack of funds is  not a problem for Asia’s largest civic body.

Among the children who are found to be malnourished, there is a significant gender disparity — with girls suffering more than boys consistently over the years. In 2015-16, 35 per cent (34,222) girls were found to be malnourished, as against 33 per cent (30,459) boys.

In 2015-16 the percentage of malnourished children in Class I was as high as 43 per cent and 42 per cent for girls and boys respectively. “This raises serious questions on the efficacy of the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) and other schemes aimed at improving the nutrition of children. If children are most malnourished in their early years of schooling, then it means that the gaps in the schemes need to be identified,” Praja Foundation’ Project Director Milind Mhaske said.

“The budget for the ICDS in Maharashtra has decreased from Rs 2,947 crore (revised budget 2016—17 ) to Rs 2,033 crore (budget allocation, 2017-18,” Mehta said.

Between 2013-14 and 2015-16, malnourished students in BMC’s schools in class I increased by 246 per cent (3123 to 10, 802). During the same period, malnourished students in class V increased by 308 per cent (2591 to 10562). “This raises serious questions on the efficacy of the mid day meals being provided by the civic body to students,” Mehta said.

A large number of factors could be behind the increasing problem of child malnutrition. For instance, the number of cases of diarrhoea increased from 99,839 in 2011-12 to 1,19, 342 in 2015-16. From April 2015 to December 2015, children below 14 years of age accounted for as much as 29 per cent of total deaths due to diarrhea.

“This indicates that diarrhoea disproportionately affects people at a younger age. The prevalence of such diseases leads to stunted development for children and an inter generational cycle of poor health,” she said.

 “The huge problem of malnutrition persists in spite of the multitude of government schemes and programmes designed to address it. This is reflective of the general predicament of governance in India, in which government initiatives often fall woefully short of attaining their stated objectives,” the report stated.

“Growing child malnutrition in municipal schools should be a cause for immediate concern for two reasons. Firstly, it shows the inadequacy of municipal schools in serving the needs of the economically weaker sections of society, whom they seek to target. Secondly, as children are the future of our country, it means that we may be frittering away our large demographic dividend,” the report added.