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About 45 per cent of children under five years age suffer from chronic under-nutrition in the state and among them whopping 57 per cent belong to tribal communities.
The state is home to 9.6 million tribal inhabitants, the third highest population in India after Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra and constitute a quarter of the state's population.
The situation among state's rural tribal children aged 18-23 months is even more serious with the prevalence of stunting (low height for age) as high as 83 per cent.
It may be noted that for identification of gaps and sharing of good practices related to improving tribal under-nutrition among nine schedule V states and field practitioners, Unicef is organising a two day conclave with Union ministry of tribal affairs (MOTA) and the state government.
The theme of the conclave is 'Nourishing India's Tribal Children'.
