Jagdalpur. The crisis of malnutrition in Bastar, Chhattisgarh, seems to be deepening once again. Statistics show that thousands of children in the district are suffering from malnutrition. The number of severely malnourished children at NRC centers is constantly increasing. But politics is dominating this serious problem as well. While the BJP government is claiming that the malnutrition rate has come down, the Congress is calling it a cut in schemes and the government’s failure to deal with malnutrition. The question is why is the nutrition of children becoming a victim of politics?
According to the data received from the Women and Child Development Department, 83 thousand children are registered in the Anganwadi centers of Bastar district, out of which 14,563 children are malnourished. Out of these, 2,264 children fall in the category of severe malnutrition. More than 150 children are admitted in the 7 NRC centers of the district, who are undergoing treatment. According to Project Officer Manoj Singh, more than 10 schemes of the government are running for the nutrition of these children, but lack of awareness and limitations of facilities in rural areas are posing challenges.
On the other hand, Congress alleges that as soon as the BJP government came to power, it stopped those schemes which were proving effective in fighting malnutrition. According to Congress District President Sushil Maurya, the previous government had started providing food like eggs, milk and nutrition laddus in Anganwadi centres through DMFT funds, but now all these have been stopped. This is the reason that the number of malnourished children has increased in two years and the government’s schemes have remained confined to paper only.
The mayor is saying that the tenure of Congress is full of corruption
BJP’s counter-attack is also sharp. Party spokesperson and Jagdalpur mayor Sanjay Pandey describes the Congress tenure as full of corruption. He claims that during the Congress rule, women were deprived of work and ready-to-eat food was supplied through the Seed Corporation so that the funds could be distributed. After the BJP government came to power, ready-to-eat and hot food is being provided in all Anganwadi centres and the malnutrition rate has come down. According to him, at present the malnutrition rate in the district is 17%, which is better than in the past years.
8 thousand malnourished children were admitted in two years
However, the ground data does not fully support the government’s claims. In the last two years, 8 thousand malnourished children were admitted to NRC centers, but only 60 percent of them got nutrition, the remaining 40 percent children are still in the grip of malnutrition. The government is running schemes, the budget is also being spent, but the implementation and monitoring of these schemes is under question. The result is that even today the child of Bastar is standing alone to fight malnutrition… and political rhetoric is making this fight more difficult.
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