When Sharda Pilmanwar, 26, delivered her first child four years ago, she weighed a little above 50 kg and her daughter, about 2.25 kg.
A survey shows girls in municipal schools suffer severe anemia and stunted growth
NAGPUR: When Sharda Pilmanwar, 26, delivered her first child four years ago, she weighed a little above 50 kg and her daughter, about 2.25 kg.
Today, Sharda continues to be anemic and undernourished, while her daughter Nandini, is not only anemic and malnourished but has ongenital heart disease.
“When the mother herself is severely malnourished, her child is bound to have be chronically malnourished,” says Subhadra Kotnake, a senior supervisor at Devhada primary health centre (PHC) in Chandrapur’s Rajura block. This is not an isolated case.
Despite several government schemes, child birth-weight is falling sharply in Vidarbha, particularly in the tribal areas of Gondia, Gadchiroli, Chandrapur, Yavatmal, and Amravati, say health officials. Moreover, ih has spread across the rural areas, they say.
Even in Nagpur’s slums, average weight at birth has fallen below 2.5 kg mark, says Dr Satish Gogulwar of voluntary organisation Amhi-Amchya Arogyasathi. “In Gadchiroli, low birth weight was always a problem; it’s a major concern now.”
The Nagpur Obstetrics and Gynaecological Society (Nogs) found in a recent survey that girl-students were not only chronically anemic but also suffer stunted growth. Conducted earlier this year, it had a sample size of over 9,000 girls from municipal schools and economically-weaker sections. The data is part of its ‘Anemia-bhagao’ (eradicate anemia) action.
“The girls’ parents didn’t suffer from any malnourishment. The reason for the stunted growth is chronic malnourishment and severe neglect of their supplement nutrition till age 3,” says Dr Nalini Kurvey, a gynaecologist and president, Nogs.
“The child birth-weight has dropped significantly in the last ten years in our division,” says a senior health officer.
Doctors consider a birth-weight of above 2.5 kgs to be normal even though by international standards, this is under-weight. A baby weighing less than 2 kgs at birth would suffer retarded growth and chronic malnourishment if there were no intervention or supplementary nutrition till 3 years.
The seventh report of the Commissioners of the Supreme Court in November 2007 said the Integrated Child Development Services has not been effective in tackling the needs of children below 3 - the stage of the life-cycle where malnutrition is most likely to set in, and its consequence the severest.
The problem also lies in poor spending on supplementary nutrition. Most states, including Maharashtra, are spending less than the norm of Rs 2 per beneficiary per day (the actual amount may be lower considering that the norm for pregnant and lactating mothers is Rs 2.30 per day) on it.
Chronic malnourishment and anemia among pregnant women has its roots in the falling food intake among rural women. “That,” says Dr Gogulwar, “is due to sharply dropping incomes”.
PHCs data show that high-risk pregnancies amount to over 50 per cent of total pregnancies in Gadchiroli and Chandrapur.
Dr Sanjeev Seelam, medical officer, Chandrapur, says, “Many pregnant women who come to us for delivery do heavy physical work even till the last day of their labour when they should be taking complete rest. But if they don’t work, they wont have any money.” Invariably, the mother and baby would be malnourished, he said.
h_jaideep@dnaindia.net
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