Malnutrition cases gnaw Palamu administration. The cases are both MAM (moderately acute malnutrition) and SAM (severely acute malnutrition).
DC Palamu Shashi Ranjan said the district has malnutrition treatment centres at Daltonganj, Chainpur, Panki, Paton, Chhaterpur, Hussainabad etc but the occupancy of beds by the malnourished children along with their mothers is dismal.
Ranjan said there is a 100 rupee dole out to mother for the nearly three weeks stay in such centres but the mothers just don’t come as most of the mothers are daily wagers and their income a day is `250 to `300 rupees a day and that way these mothers take it as a loss if they confine to malnutrition treatment centre with their malnourished kids,
no matter their kids need urgent and prolonged food back up.
Reminded that occupancy of beds in malnutrition treatment centres dip in times of harvesting when parents move out from their houses/ villages with kids for
outside places in Bihar to harvest and earn a living there to which Ranjan said this is also a factor.
DC said some glitches in THR (take home ration) which continued for months together here has had its adverse impact on the malnutrition cases here which we are trying to mitigate and overcome.