The fund will help state’s fight against child and lactating mother malnutrition
Ranchi, Sep 6: Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting his intervention to release funds allocated by the 15th Finance Commission for the year 2020-21.
In his letter to the Prime Minister on Monday, the chief minister has made a request to release Rs 312 crore allocated for the year 2020-21 for the fight against child malnutrition. The Chief Minister, through the letter, has said in view of widespread malnutrition, it has been recommended to give an additional allocation of Rs 7,735 crore to various states under the supplementary nutrition program. The commission has recommended an additional allocation of Rs 312 crore to the state of Jharkhand.
“A substantial part of the population in Jharkhand belongs to ST and SC community, where major cases of malnutrition are reported. Therefore, on behalf of all the citizens of Jharkhand, I would like to request that the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India, be directed to release the recommended amount of Rs 312 crore for the year 2020-21 for the state of Jharkhand”, reads the letter.
The letter also Informed about the status of malnutrition and the efforts being made by the government.
Mentioning the report of the National Family Health Survey-4, the Chief Minister put light on the situation of child malnutrition in the state. “In the NFHS-4 in Jharkhand, every second child between the age group of 0-6 Years in Jharkhand is suffering from malnutrition. 45% of these children are underweight, 23% of these are reported to be skinny, 11.3% children are severely malnourished and 40.3% are stunted.
He said, “apart from the programs of the Government of India, the state government has decided to fight against the problem of malnutrition with its limited resources. Recently, the state government has planned to provide egg and other equivalents protein-rich food to children between 3 to 6 years of age group from its resources.”
In such a situation, if the central government releases the funds allocated for the cause, it will prove to be a big support for the state government in the fight against malnutrition,” the letter from Hemant Soren adds.
