New Delhi, January 10: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday described the problem of malnutrition as a “national shame”.
The PM made the remarks while releasing a report on district-level malnutrition, titled HUNGaMA (hunger and malnutrition). The data has been collated by Hyderabad-based Naandi Foundation.
While releasing the report here, Singh said that one out of every third malnourished child in the world is an Indian.
He announced that the government will launch multi-sectoral schemes in 200 districts where malnutrition levels are very high.
It is for the first time in nearly five years that data on district-level malnutrition has been compiled.
The survey conducted by Naandi covered 100 worst-performing districts — the ones listed by UNICEF Child Development Index, 2009 — and compared them with the six best performing districts — two each in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh.
Of the 100 worst-performing districts, 40 are in Uttar Pradesh, 22 in Bihar, 15 in Jharkhand, 12 in Madhya Pradesh, 10 in Rajasthan and five in Orissa.
–Agencies