The BJP may sing their own praises of the economic progress in Gujarat under its rule, however the party- led state government make a clean breast that it lags behind in fighting undernourishment in urban areas, ironically, surpassing those in rural hinterlands.
Ahmedabad tops the list having 43,820 undernourished children, followed by Vadodara with 8,363 and Rajkot with 4,867 children suffering from malnutrition.
The government not only confesses that the malnutrition levels in the urban areas are much higher than their rural counterparts but also that 50 per cent of urban areas not have basic infrastructure like sanitation and water supply.
The document state that in urban areas, two per cent children are “severely malnourished” and 33 per cent are “moderately malnourished”, whereas in the rural hinterlands 1.5 per cent is “severely malnourished” and 25.86 per cent are “moderately malnourished”.
The statistics was borne out of a survey of the centres under the Integrated Child Development Scheme or Aanganwadis. The report states that in urban areas prevalence of malnutrition is higher and “there is a need for a comprehensive nutrition support and development of children particularly among the urban poor.”
It also recommends narrowing the gap by taking up a “five- year mission in seven municipal corporations in the State.” The document that was also put forward to the Union government’s 14th Finance Commission reasons that “Gujarat has emerged as one of India’s most urbanized states with a high level of industrialisation.”
The report puts the issue of malnutrition in a wider perspective asserting that there is a wide “intra- urban disparity” in the distribution of water.
Elaborating how sanitation lacking affects the health of the poor, the government report says, of the total 167 municipalities in the State, no more than 67 have sewerage facilities.
The rest of the towns depend on “onsite sanitation, drains and open defecation.” It adds up, “48 per cent urban population disposes of their wastewater onsite. Even in the municipal corporation areas, the sewerage coverage is (only) about 58 per cent.”
The paper concludes that these things “affect the poor the most.”
Civil rights activists attached to the Right to Food Project claim that the cause for malnutrition was that the state government had never concerned to seriously implement the Food Security Act, mentioning that even non- Congress governments had started acting on it but not Gujarat.
According to National convener of the Right to Food Project, Sejal Dand, “Gujarat provided subsidised grain to only 7.35 lakh families under the Antyodaya Anna Yojana and to 24.33 lakh below poverty line (BPL) families.
Officially, the state lists an additional 71 lakh families above poverty line but does not provide them any subsidised grains.”
On its part, the government has informed the state assembly that it has planned series of measures to enhance the nutritional levels among the under-nourished children in the age group of six months to six years.