

GANDHINAGAR: Despite the tall claims of the Narendra Modi-led Gujarat government on human development in the state, there are more than 1.94 lakh highly-malnourished children in 16 districts of Gujarat.

This was submitted by the government, in reply during question hour of the state assembly on Wednesday. Figures for the remaining 17 districts were not given.

Banaskantha tops the list with 55,418 highly-malnourished children and is followed by Ahmedabad with a figure of 55,287, Surendranagar with 33,837 and Gandhinagar with 17,819.

Ganpat Vasava, minister for women and child development, while giving standard replies to supplementary questions, spoke of programmes where supplements are being given to children.

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), in it's report submitted in October 2013, had reported that against the target of 300 nutrition days annually, the shortfall in providing supplementary nutrition was up to 96 days. Every third child in the state was reported as underweight. A shortfall of 27% to 48% was noticed in implementation of the nutrition programme for adolescent girls.

"Though there were 223.16 lakh eligible beneficiaries under supplementary nutrition programme, under the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), 63.37 lakh beneficiaries were left out," CAG had said.

It also said that against requirements of 75,480 anganwadis, only 52,137 centres were sanctioned and 50,225 were in operation in the state. "A population of 1.87 crore was deprived of the benefits of ICDS," the report stated.

