Praja foundation Praja foundation

Close to 10 per cent children in BMC schools suffer from dental problems or skin-related infections even as issues of worms and vitamin deficiency have reduced among the school children, latest data from Praja Foundation, a non-government organisation, shows.

The NGO’s data compiled through Right to Information (RTI) shows cases of underweight children have dipped drastically by 84 per cent from 73,112 children in 2016-17 to 11,720 in 2017-18. More than 2.3 lakh children were screened.

“The sudden dip is a huge discrepancy in data. When we see Integrated Child Development System (ICDS) data recorded by the state government, underweight cases have remained at a consistent 18 per cent of total children aged less than six,” said Nitai Mehta, trustee of Praja. “How is it possible that the BMC managed to achieve such a huge reduction in underweight cases?” Mehta added.

BMC measures underweight children through weight for height formula, as opposed to the state government that factors weight to age formula. When contacted, health officer for all BMC schools, Dr Menon said, “The figures have reduced. But we cannot comment why.”

Data through RTI shows while 37 per cent children studying between Class I to V were underweight from 2015 till 2017, the figure dropped to 5 per cent this year. M (East) ward, comprising Govandi, continues to hold highest burden of underweight children with 24,244 diagnosed in 2016-17 and 2,215 in 2017-18.

According to Milind Mhaske, project director at Praja, BMC does not screen children in junior and senior kg for weight. “Undernutrition is best tackled at an early age, despite that no health check-up is done in that phase,” Mhaske said.

The data also showed highest burden of illness amongst children was in skin and dental issues. In 2017-18, 21,240 had skin problems and 23,444 had dentals problems.

The cases of tuberculosis rose slightly from 160 to 187 between 2016-17 to 2017-18. But cases of speech related condition reduced from 2,035 to 1,939 due to intensive speech therapy screening and treatment in government hospitals.

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