Kerala: Mother arrested for killing 27-day-old baby, kills him for crying: Police
Pathanamthitta, Dec 13: The mother of a 27-day-old baby boy was arrested on Monday for killing him by banging his head against the wall, police said.
According to the police, the premature baby was regularly ill and his incessant crying prompted the 21-year-old mother to commit the crime.
The incident occurred on December 9. The child was taken to a hospital here at 11 AM on that day and was brought back home with medicine prescribed by the doctors, police said.
Subsequently, the infant's condition worsened during the day and the baby was rushed to a taluk hospital where he died.
Thereafter, a case was registered based on the statement given by Father Joji Thomas who ran an ashram where the woman worked as a kitchen worker and lived with her 45-year-old lover, police said.
After the postmortem on December 10, a police official spoke to the police-surgeon and found out that the child had injuries to the back of the head.
The damage was not recognisable or visible due to the thin skull of the infant, the police said and added that the official then met the child's parents and questioned them.
As the woman showed some mental discomfort, she was not questioned in detail and on making enquiries about the couple, the police found they had met each other over the phone and started living together at the ashram.
The infant's father was already married and the woman was living with him while aware about this fact, the police said.
The police said subsequent enquiries revealed that the mother herself had killed the child and she was arrested.
The woman was studying at a private institute in Kottayam when she met her lover over the phone, and she decided to kill the child as a sick infant would be detrimental to her further studies, police said.
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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.
