Child health: Developed states slip in

Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Punjab and Haryana, for long the poster boys of development, have over the years regressed when it comes to providing nutrition to children. In contrast, Orissa has shown some progress.

The third and latest edition of the National Family Health Survey, carried out every eight years, has found that the developed states have slipped in providing nutrition to children since 1998-1999, when the last survey was carried out. They have improved on other human development indices, though.

A startled Madhya Pradesh has rejected the findings of the survey.

In Kerala, the number of extremely undernourished children has almost doubled. The number of underweight children has also gone up.

Tamil Nadu, considered another success story, has also seen an increase in the number of undernourished children.

During the last eight years, West Bengal has seen the number of severely malnourished children go up from 13 per cent to 19 per cent.

In Andhra Pradesh, the number of grossly underweight children has gone up from 9 per cent to 13 per cent.

On anaemia too, Andhra Pradesh has regressed, with 79 per cent children below the age of three anaemic, as opposed to 72.3 per cent in the 1998 survey.

In Madhya Pradesh, the number of undernourished children has gone up from 54 per cent to 60 per cent. The survey has reported a rise in the number of severely undernourished children to 33 per cent from 20 per cent eight years ago.

Orissa, known for hunger and drought zones, has reported some progress, with the percentage of severely malnourished children going down from 28 per cent to 18 per cent.

Punjab has remained where it was a decade ago. Eighty per cent of its children are anaemic.

The number of underweight children has remained at 27 per cent while there has been a rise in the spread of severe undernourishment in children. This has gone up from 7 per cent to 9 per cent over the last eight years.

Himachal Pradesh has also lost some of its sheen with the number of severely undernourished children increasing from 17 per cent to 19 per cent and the coverage of immunisation going down from 83 per cent to 74 per cent. Even the infant mortality rate has gone up from 34 per 1,000 births to 36.

Gujarat has also reported a rise in the number of undernourished and anaemic children, the latter going up from 74 per cent to 80.1 per cent. The number of anaemic women has also gone up from 46 per cent to 60 per cent. Anaemia is also on the rise in Punjab and Maharashtra.

According to economist Jean Dreze, the pattern needs scrutiny. "That is why it is so important to get the data released,"' Dreze said.

Dreze and other activists had yesterday appealed to Congress President Sonia Gandhi to ask the health ministry to make the report public.