17% of children underweight, 36% stunted, 6% wasted: Women and Child Development Ministry
New Delhi: Over 50% of children under the age of 5 in India suffer from chronic malnutrition, according to the latest data from the Women and Child Development (WCD) Ministry. Responding to a question in the Lok Sabha, WCD Minister Annapurna Devi shared data from the Poshan Tracker for June, revealing that of the approximately 8.57 crore children under 6 years old measured, 17% were underweight, 36% were stunted, and 6% were wasted.
Stunted growth refers to children who are too short for their age, wasting indicates children who are too thin for their height, and underweight children have low weight for their age, reflecting both stunting and wasting. These indicators are crucial for identifying chronic or acute malnutrition in children.
Uttar Pradesh reported the highest stunting rate at 46.36%, followed closely by Lakshadweep at 46.31%. Other states with alarming stunting rates include Maharashtra at 44.59% and Madhya Pradesh at 41.61%. Wasting, an indicator of acute malnutrition, is most severe in Lakshadweep, affecting 13.22% of children. Bihar and Gujarat also reported high wasting rates at 9.81% and 9.16%, respectively. These high percentages indicate significant recent weight loss in children, often due to insufficient food intake or illness.
In terms of underweight children, Madhya Pradesh leads with 26.21%, followed by Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu at 26.41%. Lakshadweep also shows a concerning underweight rate of 23.25%.
Conversely, some states showed better results with lower malnutrition rates. Goa, for example, reports the lowest stunting rate at 5.84%, wasting at 0.85%, and underweight children at 2.18%, reflecting more effective nutritional policies and better overall health conditions.
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Bridge portion collapses on Jammu outskirts; 3-4 labourers feared trapped, 1 rescued
Jammu (PTI): A portion of a small bridge collapsed in the Bantalab area on the outskirts of Jammu city on Friday, trapping at least three to four labourers under the debris, while one injured worker was rescued, official sources said.
Authorities have closed the road link following the collapse of the portion of the bridge.
The incident occurred when labourers were carrying out repair work on a retaining wall near the bridge that was damaged in last year's flash floods, the sources said.
According to the sources, a section of the bridge suddenly gave way, burying workers engaged at the site under the rubble.
Police, Army and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) teams launched rescue operations to extricate those buried under the debris. They pulled out one injured labourer and shifted him to a hospital, the sources said.
Family members of the labourers present at the site said around six workers engaged at the site at the time of the incident came under the debris when the structure collapsed. The family members said while two of the labourers managed to escape, four got trapped.
The sources said those trapped included the husband of a woman labourer, a mason, an unmarried labourer and a relative of the contractor.
There was no official confirmation on the exact number of persons trapped under the debris till the filing of this report.
The rescue operations are ongoing.
