More malnourished kids in Karnataka: Survey

Despite special measures to treat severely malnourished children, the percentage of malnourished children has increased  to 1.86 from 1.60 in 2012-13 in the State, according to the Economic Survey.

The nutrition pattern among the children, who constitute about 11.21 per cent of the State population according to 2011 Census, was accounted for about 65.88 per cent as normal 32.52 per cent moderately malnourished and 1.60 per cent were severely malnourished at the end of March 2012.

However, in September 2012, the rate of normal children increased to 68.45 per cent and the moderately malnourished decreased to 29.69 per cent from 32.52 per cent, while the rate of severely malnourished increased to 1.86 per cent from 1.60 per cent , the survey said.

It is said that the State government is spending about `750 per child per month to meet therapeutic and medical needs of malnourished children through Balasanjivini, a new scheme, introduced in 2010-11.

Under the scheme, children requiring tertiary care receive a maximum of Rs 35,000 and in case of neonatal care, the amount goes up to Rs 50,000.

During 2011-12, the State government had made a budgetary allocation of Rs 16 crore for the scheme and Rs 4 crore has been incurred to meet therapeutic and medical expenses of 53,333 severely malnourished children while Rs 1.92 crore had been spent to treat 3,777 children under the scheme.

ICDS programme across state

The Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) programme, which provides a package of six services, including measures to tackle malnutrition and welfare of children, is being pursued across the state.