Bihar tops in child malnutrition. Will it matter this poll season?
In a Lok Sabha response on July 25, Savitri Thakur, the Minister of State in the Ministry of Women and Child Development, provided district-level data from Bihar's Anganwadi centres, which reveals that Supaul is the worst district in these parameters, with over 30 per cent of children underweight. This was followed by Jamui (26.8 per cent) and Jehanabad (26.2 per cent). Sekhpura has the best figures in the state, with only 13.4 per cent of children going to Anganwadi underweight.Bihar ranks the second highest nationally in anaemia, with 63.1 per cent of women aged 15-49 suffering from the affliction. Haryana tops the chart with 65.5 per cent. Nagaland is one of the best-performing states, with 22.3 per cent of women suffering from anaemia.While there are central schemes like Poshan Abhiyan and Anaemia Mukt Bharat, gaps in execution remain, as these programmes depend heavily on local-level implementation.Despite these indicators, malnutrition and anaemia have found limited space in the political narrative as parties focus on alliance, freebies and caste dynamics - health and nutrition remain conspicuously absent from political speeches and manifestos.- EndsTune InMust Watch
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