Nearly 40% deaths of Mumbai girls in last 5 years due to poor diet: CAG

April 20, 2015

Mumbai, Apr 20: Nearly 40% of deaths registered among girls (0 to 6 years) in the city between 2010 and 2014 have been due to lack of proper nutrition, revealed a central government report. The corresponding figure for Thane district was 64%.

Mumbai girls

The findings stated that the Maharashtra government spent Rs 4,500 crore on improving child health in the last five years.

In Mumbai and Thane, the percentages of moderately and severely underweight girls were found much higher than the state's average, the report added.

Under the integrated child development services (ICDS) programme, the state government utilized Rs 4,236 crore of the Rs 4,730 crore provided to tackle malnourishment among girls in last five years. Of the total 12,097 deaths of girls reported in Thane, Nandurbar, Mumbai, Buldhana, Gadchiroli, Beed, Nanded and Solapur, around 8,011 were due to malnourishment. A total of 139 deaths were recorded in Mumbai, while Thane district saw 1,291 fatalities.

The Congress-NCP government ruled the state during the five years and Dharavi MLA Varsha Gaikwad was the women and child development minister.

The ICDS programme is one of the flagship schemes being implemented by the women and child development department to improve the nutrition and health of children in the 0-6 age group. It also aims at reducing mortality, morbidity, malnutrition, and the school drop-out rate. The welfare scheme's objectives were to be achieved by providing supplementary nutrition, immunization and health check-ups. In March 2014, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) found that there were 97,155 anganwadi centres in the state that catered to more than 82 lakh children, including 39.10 lakh girls up to six years.

According to the revised norms of the World Health Organisation, underweight children are segregated in two categories, moderately and severely underweight. The CAG findings indicated that between 2010 and 2014, the number of moderate and severely underweight girls in Mumbai and Thane ranged between 20% and 24%, while the state's average was 16.27%. The number of moderately underweight girls in Mumbai stood at 21.66% and that of severely underweight girls was 2.87%.

Policy on child malnutrition uses old data

In the tribal districts of Nandurbar and Gadchiroli, the number of moderate and severely underweight girls was as 33.98% and 27.02% respectively. "In connection with the significant number of moderately and severely underweight girls and their deaths, the ICDS commissioner has said that a special drive has been undertaken to address the problem," the CAG report mentioned.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
April 2,2020

Chandigarh, April 2: A 59-year-old woman and her 10-month-old granddaughter have tested positive for novel coronavirus in Chandigarh on Thursday.

According to the Chandigarh Health Department, they are family contacts of the NRI couple that tested positive for COVID-19 earlier.
With this, the total cases in the Union Territory rose to 18.

The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country climbed to 1,965 on Thursday, after as many as 328 new cases were reported, said the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. So far, at least 50 people have lost their lives due to the virus.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
January 31,2020

New Delhi, Jan 31: Chief Economic Adviser K V Subramanian on Friday said India's GDP is expected to grow at 6-6.5 per cent next fiscal as the economic slowdown has bottomed out.

As per the first advance estimates released by the National Statistical Organisation (NSO), the country's economic growth is likely to hit an 11-year low of 5 per cent in the current fiscal ending March 2020.

The Economic Survey 2019-20, prepared by a team lead by Subramanian, has projected the GDP to expand in the range of 6-6.5 per cent during 2020-21.

The Indian economy has hit the bottom and it will see an uptick from here, he said in a media briefing post the Economic Survey.

Amidst a weak environment for global manufacturing, trade and demand, the Indian economy slowed down with GDP growth moderating to 4.8 per cent in the first half of 2019-20, lower than 6.2 per cent in H2 of 2018-19.

Based on NSO's first advance estimates of GDP growth for 2019-20 at 5 per cent, an uptick in GDP growth is expected in the second half of the fiscal, it said.

According to it, the uptick in second half of 2019-20 would be mainly due to ten positive factors like picking up of Nifty India Consumption Index for the first time this year, an upbeat secondary market, higher FDI flows, build-up of demand pressure, positive outlook for rural consumption, rebound of industrial activity, steady improvement in manufacturing, growth in merchandise exports, higher build-up of foreign exchange reserves and positive growth rate of GST revenue collection.

The survey also emphasised that merger of public sector banks may increase the financial strength of the merged entities, lower the risk aversion and result in lowering of lending rates.

Further, as the implementation of GST further settles down, the increased unification of the domestic market may reduce business costs and facilitate fresh investment.

Reforms in land and labour market may further reduce business costs, said the survey, presented a day before Sitharaman's Union Budget 2020-21.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
June 22,2020

New Delhi, Jun 22: With an increase of 14,821 new cases and 445 deaths, India's COVID-19 count reached 4,25,282 on Monday.

According to the latest update by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), 13,699 deaths have been recorded due to the infection so far in the country.

The rise in confirmed cases today is lower than the highest spike of 15 thousand plus cases registered on Sunday.

The count includes 1,74,387 active cases, and 2,37,196 cured/discharged/migrated patients.

Maharashtra with 1,32,075 confirmed cases remains the worst-affected by the infection so far in the country. The state's count includes 60,161 active, 65,744 cured, discharged patients while 6,170 deaths have been reported due to the infection so far.

Meanwhile, the national capital today became the second-worst affected region in the country with the number of confirmed cases in Delhi reaching 59,746 as opposed to Tamil Nadu's 59,377 cases.

While 2,175 deaths have been reported in Delhi due to the infection so far, the toll in Tamil Nadu stands at 757.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.