The Asian Age: Mumbai: Wednesday, May 31, 2017.
According to
the report released by Praja Foundation on malnourished children in civic-run
schools, their number has gone up from 8 per cent in 2013-14 to 34 per cent in
2015-16, of which, the highest number of cases are to be found in Govandi and
Mankhurd areas of Mumbai. According to Praja, the problem of malnutrition is
due to a multitude of factors, including failure of government to implement
programmes designed to address it effectively. The NGO said this was reflective
of the general predicament of governance in India, where government initiatives
often fell woefully short of attaining stated objectives.
Nitai Mehta,
founder-trustee, Praja Foundation, said that information was gathered from BMC
through the Right to Information (RTI) Act. Data from 2013-14 and 2015-16
showed that the estimated number of malnourished children in Mumbai’s municipal
schools had risen from 30,461 (8 per cent of the total 404,251 students) in
2013-14 to 130,680 (34 per cent of the total 383,485 students) in 2015-16.
Mr Mehta
said, “The data shows that areas such as Govandi and Mankhurd have the highest
number i.e. 15,038 malnourished children in civic schools in 2015-16. The areas
also have the lowest human development index which is lower than even extremely
poor countries such as the Central African Republic and South Sudan.”
BMC chief
Ajoy Mehta and BMC education officer Mahesh Palkar were unavailable for
comment. They failed to respond to mobile phone messages too.
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