Report: Malnourished children only witnessing 20-30% weight gain in district-level centres
District-level NRC is a health facility that caters to children with Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) in the 1 month to five years age group.
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With government officials claiming that many NRCs don’t have pediatricians, the report has sought compulsory posting of specialists in rural areas. (Representational/File) In many districts with a more rural population, like Palghar, Nandurbar, Dhule and Gondia, severely malnourished children are only witnessing a 20 to 30 per cent weight gain at the Union government-run nutrition rehabilitation centers (NRC), when the expected rate of weight gain at such centres is 70 per cent, a report submitted to the state — by a core committee it had appointed — has said.
District-level NRC is a health facility that caters to children with Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) in the 1 month to five years age group. The children are usually referred to these centres – where they are treated for medical complications like diarrhoea and fever – from anganwadis. They are also given nutrition supplements to increase their weight.
But in reality, many children aren’t gaining the target weight as per National Health Mission guidelines. The issue was taken up by the committee formed in 2018 in response to a petition filed before the court by activist Bandu Sampatrao Sane regarding malnutrition in tribal areas. It annually addresses issues of nutrition among children and mothers in 16 districts with high tribal populations.
In the report, submitted last month, it is stated that NRCs located at women hospitals in Nagpur, Gondia and Nashik have recorded only 14 per cent, 29 per cent and 20 per cent weight gain, respectively. Molgi and Dhadgaon talukas in Nandurbar, a district with the most number of tribals, has recorded a weight gain between 23-27 per cent.
As per the National Family Health Survey 5 of 2019-2021, Maharashtra ranks third in India in the list of most number of underweight children under five years. “In some districts, the weight gain rate is below 20 per cent,” said Sane. The government, meanwhile, has claimed that many parents forcefully take away their children from the NRCs before they achive the target weight.
Under the Centre’s scheme, the parents are given Rs300 per day as wage compensation for staying at the NRC. One the day of the child’s discharge, the parents are given the cumulative incentive for all the days of admission. But the report said that even days after the discharge, the parents don’t get the compensation.
“In tribal communities, couples always have more than one child. They can’t afford to leave their daily wage for the care of a single child, as they are responsible for others. In this backdrop, the scheme was introduced but failed in execution,” said Sane. “If only it was implemented properly, the parents wouldn’t have to take discharge against the doctor’s recommendation.”
With government officials claiming that many NRCs don’t have pediatricians, the report has sought compulsory posting of specialists in rural areas.
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