REFILE-Indian PM says millions of children undernourished
Source: Reuters
(Fixes typographical error in first paragraph) By Kamil Zaheer NEW DELHI, Jan 16 (Reuters) - Malnutrition rates among Indian children remain one of the highest in the world, and a massive programme to improve health and nutrition has failed to make a serious dent, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Tuesday. Some 50 million children aged below six are covered under the 45 billion rupees ($1 billion) Integrated Child Development Services scheme, but it has been poorly implemented, Singh said in a letter to state chief ministers after an adverse health ministry report said. "There is strong evidence that the programme has not led to any substantial improvement in the nutritional status of children under six," Singh said, urging strong action. A further 110 million children in the 0-6 age group remain outside the purview of the program which was meant to expand gradually. The average malnutrition rate in some Indian states such as most populated Uttar Pradesh is 40 percent, higher than Sub-Saharan Africa where it is around 30 percent, UNICEF says. "Our prevalent rate of under-nutrition in this age group remains one of the highest in the world," Singh said, in a surprisingly strong criticism of the government program in his letter, released in a press statement on Tuesday. Singh's comments follow early findings of a health ministry survey which said the number of undernourished children below the age of three had actually risen in some states since the late 1990s, despite higher incomes and impressive economic growth. The ICDS scheme, set up in 1975 and one of the biggest childcare efforts in the world, includes immunisation and provision of supplementary food like cooked mixtures of pulses and grains, besides check-ups for pregnant women. This is done by thousands of state-funded community workers in poor, rural areas with limited or no medical facilities. Media reports say efforts to provide nutritious food to children have been marred by corruption, including diversion of food to feed cattle. UNICEF welcomed Singh's comments. "He is correct to address this. The national development of India will be hampered due to high malnutrition rates," Werner Schultink, head of nutrition for UNICEF in India, told Reuters. Though India's economy has been growing at over eight percent over the past three years and expected to expand close to nine percent in the fiscal year ending March 2007, close to 300 million Indians live with less than dollar a day. (S1=44.19 rupees)
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