MALNUTRITION: '50% Chandigarh kids malnourished'

Shimona Kanwar, TNN, Dec 28, 2010,
CHANDIGARH: The city is not in the pink when it comes to child health. According to records maintained for a decade since 1997, 50.4% of children in the 3 to 6 age group from both urban and rural areas selected randomly are malnourished. Despite major strides made in economic progress reflected in per capita income of Chandigarh, malnutrition continues to remain a public health problem, with half the children being underweight.
Findings of the PGI school of public health study conducted by Dr J S Thakur, Dr Shankar Prinja and Dr Satpal Bhatia, have been published this year in the Indian paediatric journal. The study was funded by department of women and children, ministry of social welfare, Chandigarh.
For the study, a total of 45 anganwari centres were selected. These include eight urban, 16 rural and 21 urban slum centres.
In an effort to know the trend of malnutrition among children under the age of five, the research group studied 803 children. The group was divided into three categories according to ages: 0-1, 1-3 and 3-6 years. There were 169 children of 0-1, 285 of 1-3 and 349 of 3-6 age group category. In 1997, malnourishment was 51.6% while it was 50.4% in 2007. Findings of the study were compared with another methodologically similar study in 1997 from a Chandigarh reproductive and child health rapid household survey to draw decadal trends. Incidence of being underweight among under-five children was found to have remained almost stagnant.
The study concluded that there is a requirement for reorienting the focus of Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS). Together, these findings suggest there is a need to reorient the focus of ICDS programme towards a meaningful process of growth monitoring that involves mothers and builds their capacity for child feeding. It mentioned: 'The present study shows geographic inequities in service utilization for reproductive and child health.'

Disturbing Numbers
According to UNICEF, one in every three malnourished children in the world is from India. In the country, around 46% of all children below the age of three are too small for their age, 47% are underweight and at least 16% are wasted. Many of these children are severely malnourished

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