Bhopal, June 26: Contrary to the claims of the Madhya Pradesh government of protecting children from malnutrition and various diseases, official data shows that every day no less than 61 kids in the 0-9 age group die for the same reasons.
This information was given by Minister for Woman and Child Development Archana Chitnis in the state Assembly in response to a question by Congress MLA Ramnivas Rawat.
The Congress legislator had sought to know how many children were found under-weight and how many of them died between February and May 2018.
Chitness replied that a total of 1,183,985 children were found to be under-weight, out of which 103,083 were critically low on weight.
She also informed that during the period, 6,024 infants aged up to one year and 7,332 children between one and five years died due to various diseases.
Rawat said it is a sad commentary on the state of childcare in the state.
"The state government has been making tall claims on children's healthcare. But 7,332 children dying over a period of 120 days means 61 kids are dying every day!" he said.
The Minister said that at a review meeting on September 15, 2016, it was decided to issue a white paper on childcare in the state and a committee for the purpose had also been constituted.
But the points of reference of the committee are yet to finalised and no meeting of the panel has been held as yet.
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Chennai (PTI): Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin has strongly criticised the Centre over the women's reservation and accused it of trying to use it as a "weapon" to tackle the opposition before taking up the delimitation exercise based on population.
"The Union government is not concerned about implementing reservations for women. If their concerns were genuine, they could have done it right away. Rather than doing that, the BJP-led Centre is thinking of using it as a weapon to tackle opposition and take up the delimitation exercise based on population," he told PTI in an interview.
"Hence, the women's reservation must be implemented immediately without showing delimitation as a reason," the DMK president added.
Expressing apprehensions on the proposed delimitation exercise, the CM said it was the DMK that raised the first voice asserting the rights of the state after realising that Tamil Nadu would be affected by the proposed exercise. He also attacked his rival and AIADMK chief Edappadi K Palaniswami over the delimitation issue.
Recalling efforts made by the DMK to raise the issue of population-based delimitation, he said an all-party meeting and a meeting of CMs under the auspices of the Joint Action Committee seeking fair delimitation were convened. It sought to freeze delimitation for 25 years and stick to it based on the 1971 Census population.
"We urged the union government that states which successfully implemented population control programmes must not be punished," he added.
The party came up with "Tamil Nadu poradum, Tamil Nadu vellum" (Tamil Nadu will struggle, Tamil Nadu will win) and this is DMK's stand, he said.
"However, Palaniswami, who is seeking votes for the entry of the BJP through the backdoor, has till date been mute over delimitation, and this is a betrayal of the people of Tamil Nadu."
