'Highest number of malnourished children in MP'

Madhya Pradesh has the highest number of malnourished children in the country with 74.1% of those under the age of five suffering from anaemia and 60% from malnutrition, the government said today.

According to the data of National Family Health Survey-3 (NFHS-3) 2005-06, 42.5% of the country's children under the age of five are malnourished and 69.5% are anaemic, Union Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi in a written reply in Rajya Sabha said.

While Jharkand has the second highest number of malnourished children (56.5%) followed by Bihar (55.9%), Chhattisgarh has second highest number of anaemic children with Andhra Pradesh ranking third.

"As per the last NFHS-3, 2005-06, carried out by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, 42% of the children under five years of age are underweight and 69.5% of under five are anaemic," she said.

The prevalence of underweight children under five years of age in Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan is 37%, 42.2%, 55.9%, 39.9% respectively. Nutritional anaemia is the most common type of anaemia among children and mainly includes iron, folate and Vitamin B-12 deficiencies.

"The government has accorded high priority to the issue of malnutrition and is implementing several schemes and programmes through state/UT administration, including Integrated Child Development Scheme, Rajiv Gandhi Scheme for Empowerment of Adolescent Girls namely SABLA and Indira Gandhi Matritva Sahyog Yojna as targeted interventions," the minister said.