Malnutrition plagues Mumbai kids

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Keywords: CRY, Slum Children

Mumbai: Karishma Tambe, who lives in a slum in the northern suburb of Bhandup, Mumbai, is the only one from her family left to prepare lunch.

Her mother is a domestic worker and her baby brother and sister, are both in hospital.

They were among seven of the children from that area admitted to hospital for severe malnutrition.

But NGOs say the hospital refused to admit that it was a case of malnutrition.

There has been a steep rise in the number of deprived children being admitted to hospitals, but the Maharashtra government refutes the fact that malnutrition is becoming increasingly common in the city.

“When we first admitted them, the hospital put Protein Intake Malnutrition on the form. But they later cancelled it and changed it to some other ailment," a member of Bal Hakka Abhiyan civil society organisation, Manoj Ghanghaw, said.

The state government too has consistently denied the children were suffering from malnutrition.

“I do not accept that these are cases of malnutrition. There are many other factors in these slums, like unhygienic conditions, bad water supply, and bad medical facilities. But still, the nutrition programme should be revised,” Women and Child Development Minister, Harshvardhan Patil says.

But studies conducted tell another story.

A study conducted by Child Relief and You, the child rights organisation, finds that over 60 per cent of the children in Mumbai slums are malnourished and 11 per cent of them severely so. And that's just the tip of a statistical iceberg.

Research comparing Mumbai slum children with those in tribal areas actually finds a higher incidence of malnutrition in urban children, than those in rural areas.

And as Karishma's family members shuttle back and forth from the hospital, it might just be a wake up call for the government to change its stand.