New Delhi: Malnourished children in the country will get a higher dose of dietary intake with the Women and Child Development Ministry joining hands with the World Bank for initiating this project. The project that aims at improving the quality of nutrition given to children will increase the dietary intake of severely malnourished children by 50 per cent while the normal malnourished will get 30 per cent higher dose of nutrition.
"Children are classified as normal malnourished and severely malnourished on the basis of certain health parameters ascertained during their regular check-ups by the nurses or ASHA workers. Children who are normal malnourished will be given 30 per cent higher dose of nutrition and those who are severely malnourished will get 50 per cent more," a senior Ministry official said.
There are about 162 districts with high extent of malnourishment in children. The programme will be implemented through the ministry's ongoing Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) which provides supplementary nutrition to children under 6 besides pregnant and lactating mothers, and which takes about 85 per cent of the its resources.
India still has the highest number of underweight children under five in the world. The government will have 25 per cent share in the project while the rest will be financed by the World Bank in the form of soft loan, the official said.
"It is a World Bank funded project with which we want to improve the quality of dietary intake of malnourished children, that is providing better food and better nutrition. It will be implemented with the help of a soft loan from World Bank though we will also have 25 per cent share in it," he said.
The Ministry along with UNICEF had carried out a 'Rapid Survey on Children' in 2013-14, according to which, India's proportion of underweight children fell from 45.1 per cent in 2005-6 to 30.1 per cent in 2013-14. The World Bank estimates that India is one of the highest ranking countries in the world for the number of children suffering from malnutrition. The prevalence of underweight children in India is among the highest in the world.
The ministry has been undertaking information and education campaigns to sensitise people about the correct nutritional methods. It had produced a series of videos in all national languages to reach out to maximum number of people teaching them about malnutrition. "This initiative will add to the ministry's efforts on tackling malnutrition," the official said.
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