AHMEDABAD: Within a week, five children died of malnutrition at Ludbai village in Gujarat's Kutch district. Due to the recent deaths, the village sarpanch organized a medical camp, where 322 children from the village were evaluated by an expert doctor from Mumbai, 39 of whom were malnourished.
Jabbar Jat Sarpanch of Ludbai village in Kutch district told TNIE that "A child in my village got sick and he died on his way to hospital. Following this incident, I conducted an investigation and discovered that 5 children aged 0 to 15 months died from malnutrition in the previous week (7th to 15th June). I also reported this issue to the Taluka and district levels, but they took no action. So, I sought assistance from a non-governmental organization."
“On July 23, the local Trust held a pediatric diagnosis camp in the village, when 322 Ludbai village children were tested, and it was discovered that 39 children from our village were malnourished and are in a serious state." He said
Dr. Jayesh Kapadia, who checked the children in Ludbai village, told local media that during his examination he discovered more than 22 malnourished youngsters in one hour and that the roads here are so terrible that people cannot get to the hospital.
When TNIE spoke with Kutch District’s DDO(District Development Officers) Shailesh Prajapati about the incident, he denied the Ludbai Sarpanch's claim.
DDO Said, "Five children didn't die due to malnutrition, only two died because of that. One of the five kids died on May 15th in Ludbai village, and in July 2023 three more children died. The cause of their deaths are low weight, fever and other reasons while the remaining two died due to malnutrition. The health team is presently conducting a survey.”
Gujarat's annual spending on child welfare is estimated to be Rs 1000 crore.
Gujarat Government is running various programs for child welfare like the Chiranjeevi Yojana, Bal Bhog Yojana, Vitamin Yukt Poshan Aahar Yojana, Kanya Kelavani Yojana, Nutrition Rehabilitation Center, Bal Sakha Center, Bal Amrutam, Kasturba Poshan Sahay Yojana, Mission Balam Sukham, and Mamta Ghar.
Gujarat woman and child development minister informed the state assembly this March that 1,25,707 children are malnourished in 30 districts of state as on December 21, 2022, Of which 1,01,586 are underweight and 24,121 are severely underweight. Narmada district has 12,429 undernourished children, the highest in 30 districts.