50 per cent reduction of malnutrition at Thane district within 3 yrs

Thane, Mumbai, Dec 13 (UNI) Cases of malnutrition has been reduced to 50 per cent within three years, in this district, revealed Tribal Development Minister, Dr Vijaykumar Gavit.

This tribes dominated district was reeling under severe malnutrition. The joint efforts put up by the District Health Authorities, Zilla Parishad, Civil Hospital, District Collectorate has really worked wonders and if this trend continues then the cases are likely to go down further by 25 per cent. These facts were brought to light at a meeting of the Nava Sanjivani Yojana of the district which was reviewed by Dr Vijaykumar Gavit.

The minister appreciated the joint efforts by the authorities and encouraged them to continue the same. He suggested that they should find newer methods to totally eradicate the malnutrition cases. He added that the tribals should be given employment with uplift their economic status which will help their livelihood and help their children be healthy.

It may be recalled that it was in 1993-94 that there was a hue and cry over the large scale child deaths and malnutrition deaths, the state and central government took the matter seriously therefore swung into action and gave a near district status to the tribal region with headquarters at Jawhar.

According to the highly placed source in the district, the credit for the same goes to the efforts put in by the former Collector Nandakumar Jantre, his present incumbent S S Zende, Civil Surgeon Pramod Chapalgaonkar, CEO of the ZP Subash Hazare, former DHO Khade and his successor now.

A highly placed source in the health department of the district said that various efforts taken by the district administration had helped a lot in changing the entire situation which was worst.

The efforts included total survey of the children in the district and ensuring that they come to the health centres either the PHCs or Rural Hospital and providing treatment to them.

It was ensured that the grade IV and Grade III children were converted to the next level by all possible efforts and ensure that the situation is maintained at the level. The nutritous food given to the children at the Anganwadis went a long way in helping the situation improve he said.

The minister asked the officials of the district to prepare a comprehensive plan for the entire district to further check the cases of the malnutrition.

It was informed in the meeting that till the end of November there were 635 cases of Class III and IV of which 553 cases were of Grade III. The maximum number of cases were from Jawhar which stood at 194 followed by Mokhada which was 100.

The meeting was informed that the total cases of malnutrition in the district in the past five years was 1370 in 2002-03, 1748 in 2003-04, 1966 in 2004-05 and 647 in 2006-07.

This itself shows that there is a decreasing trend which is a good sign the meeting was informed.

UNI