NABARANGPUR : The number of underweight and malnourished children in Nabarangpur district has come down by 50 per cent (pc) in the last seven months.This was informed at a review meeting of ‘Nutritional Status’ as well as ‘Status on Severely Malnourished Children (SAM)’ in Nabarangpur district, chaired by KBK Chief Administrator-cum-Additional Chief Secretary Sudarshan Pal Thakur, here on Friday.
Thakur had visited several villages in the district to conduct on-the-spot assessment of Integrated Child Development Services activities in April. During his visit to Ladipadar village under Tentulikhunti block, he had come across two-year-old twins Ranji, a baby girl and Sanjaya, a baby-boy. The twins were malnourished.
Expressing concern over the twins’ health, Thakur directed improvement in nutrition of children in the villages across the district. The KBK chief administrator directed the officials concerned to send him a monthly report on the nutrition and weight of such children. At that time he had also examined the quality of food given to the children at anganwadi centres of the district.
Subsequently, Collector Ajit Kumar Mishra directed officials to conduct a survey in 2,221 anganwadi centres under 10 ICDS projects being implemented in the district to find out all malnourished and underweight children.
During the survey, they found that as many as 2,251 children were enlisted as undernourished and underweight in the district. Following this, ICDS implementation was strengthened and nutrition of such children monitored. Thakur informed that as on today, the number of malnourished children including newborns and newly identified children has come down to 1,883. He lauded the Collector and other line department officials for the improvement.