- Let’s not get fooled by the subject caption, thinking that Maharashtra alone is showing signs of worrying child malnutrition rates prevalent. Unfortunately, the situation is equally alarming around the country, even though Maharashtra is considered one of the most advanced states in India. At the best of times, the Indian government’s – both at the Centre and the states – focus on providing adequate healthcare infrastructure is still a work in progress needs no further elaboration. The frailty of the healthcare infrastructure in the country stood starkly exposed during the harrowing pandemic, when thousands of lives were lost owing to the inadequacy of the system. Have we learnt enough lessons from the depressing scenario vis-à-vis health? Not at all.
PC: Pratisruti Plus
- As the subject matter reveals so much, let’s get deep down to understand why worrying levels of child malnutrition in Maharashtra have HC worried. Is the government equally worried about addressing the matter as well? Recently, the Bombay HC has upbraided the state government for taking public health, in this case, child malnutrition, extremely casually. HC was responding to public interest litigations highlighting the large number of children dying from malnutrition, 65infants in Melghat in the last six months. To begin with, the fact that PILs must be filed in India’s financial capital to simply get the government to pay attention to a public health crisis shows that something is very broken. But will HC’s despair bother the government?
PC: Tech Policy Press
- HC has repeatedly responded to PILs on the issue of malnutrition in the state. It said that since 2006, it has been asking for a detailed report on the dire situation in 2023. Not that Maharashtra government doesn’t know, 40% of its children aged 0-5 are stunted, worse than Rajasthan’s 36%, closer to Bihar’s 42%, as shared in a Rajya Sabha answer. Earlier this year, an Indian Institute of Population Sciences survey revealed that 26% of kids were wasted – dangerously thin for their height due to rapid weight loss or inability to gain weight – and 35% underweight. The Global Nutrition Report 2020 noted that around 38% of children (under 5) in India are stunted, 21% wasted, and 35% underweight. Extremely alarming figures that should worry all concerned.
PC: Deccan Herald
- In July, Maharashtra’s women & child development minister, in a written reply in the assembly, noted that the state had recorded more than 1.8L malnourished children statewide. This included 30,800 with severe acute malnutrition and over 1.5L with moderate acute malnutrition, per Poshan Tracker data for Feb 2025. There are 48.1L children registered in the state. There’s no dearth of data. Surely the solution doesn’t need rocket science. This is an indictment of successive governments and politicians in Maharashtra who have prioritized all manner of political circuses to assume or retain office, completely abrogating basic governance. Urban malnutrition is spiking. The Maharashtra government should accord topmost priority to address this avoidable malaise.
