In the battle against scourge of malnutrition in State, Odisha got a big jolt as it slipped to 4th State in the country with most under-weight children under 5-year (U-5) of age against 8th nationally a decade ago.
Meghalaya now has a lesser proportion of underweight U-5 children than Odisha. Odisha now has a whopping 34.4 per cent of underweight U-5 children, when Meghalya has 30.9 per cent. In contrast, Odisha in 2004-05 had nearly 40.7 per cent underweight U-5 children vis-à-vis 48.8 per cent in Meghalaya.
When the fact is Odisha could bring a decline of a mere 6 per cent only during the span of 2004-05 to 2013-14, neighbouring State like Chhattisgarh could bring a high of over 13.2 per cent drop to have only 33.9 per cent U-5 under-weight children in 2013-14 against a whopping 47.1 per cent in 2004-05. Even, Uttar Pradesh with 42.9 per cent underweight children in 2004-05 scored 34.3 per cent in 2013-14 - a slice up to rank above Odisha.
The bottom line now is Odisha which had a better rate of 40.7 per cent than the national average of 42.5 per cent underweight U-5 children in 2004-05, now stands worse with nearly 5 per cent more underweight than the national average of 29.4 per cent. Moreover, Gujarat, UP, Meghalaya and Chhattisgarh which had higher proportion of underweight children in 2004-05, have scored an improved rank over Odisha in 2013-14.
This startling revelation has come to the fore from the latest findings of Rapid Survey of Children (RSoC) released recently, and when this was compared to with the findings on the prevalence of underweight in U-5 children nationally made public in 2004-05 by the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) - 3.
The comparative analysis also shows that Madhya Pradesh and Bihar have scored a sterling performance during the decade as they reduced the burden of underweight children proportion by a whopping 23.9 per cent and 18.8 per cent to 36 per cent and 37 per cent, respectively.
According to organisations like Unicef, widespread prevalence of malnutrition among children and pregnant mothers result in to a higher degree of underweight symptoms among kids in Odisha.
In order to bring down the prevalence of malnourishment, Supplementary Nutrition (SN) is provided to children in the age group of 0-6 years and lactating mothers under the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) in the State.
Odisha’s slow progress in reducing underweight incidence could well be linked to the fall in child beneficiaries under the SN programme over the years.
Sample this. The number of beneficiaries in the age group of 6months - 3years in 2013 was over 20.2 lakh, but the number fell to around 19.8 lakh in 2014-15. Similarly, in the age-group of 3 - 6 years, the numbers now saw a contraction to 18.92 lakh from 19.02 lakh in 2013-14. Odisha now has over 99 lakh moderately and severely malnourished children and is 13th among the 36 States and UTs nationally.