Citizens' Alliance demands national level debate on malnutrition

Patna, May 13 (UNI) Concerned with the high percentage of children suffering from malnutrition all over the country, the Citizens' Alliance has demanded the Centre to hold a special debate on the issue in the National Development Council (NDC) meeting.

After visiting the Saraiya block in Muzaffarpur district and Bidupur in Vaishali district yesterday, members of the Citizens' Alliance, comprising noted personalities from various fields, including politics, medical science, media and the silver screen, advocated for formulating a special policy to improve the condition of the malnourished children.

The group, comprising MPs Shahnawaz Hussain (BJP), Jay Panda (Biju Janata Dal), Md Salim (CPM), Sangita Singh Deo (BJP), Alok Kumar Mehta (RJD), Neeraj Chandrashekhar (SP), besides senior journalist Neerja Choudhry and actor Gauri Karnik, told newspersons here that the Centre should bring the issue of malnutrition on the national agenda and hold a special debate.

Narrating their experiences at Saryaiya and Bidupur, they said the maximum number of malnourished children belonged to the age group of 0-2 years.

They suggested the state government to inlcude the children of this age group in the ICDS programme, which presently covers kids from 3-5 years of age.

The Citizens' Alliance also lauded the schemes of the state government to eradicate malnutrition and said some of the programmes were quite innovative.

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