A commission headed by former chief secretary TM Vijay Bhaskar has recommended more eggs to curb malnutrition in children in the state.
The Karnataka Administrative Reforms Commission has recommended more eggs to bring children back from being malnourished in the state. (Creative Commons)
The second Karnataka Administrative Reforms Commission (KARC-2) has recommended giving five eggs a week to severely and moderately malnourished children.
On Friday, 3 February, the committee headed by former chief secretary TM Vijay Bhaskar called on Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai to submit the reports of the commission suggesting measures on improving healthcare, quality of education, veterinary services, agriculture, BBMP and other administrative departments.
“Severely acute malnourished (SAM) and moderately acute malnourished (MAM) children aged six months to three years may be given five eggs per week instead of two per week now. In addition, normal children may be given two eggs per week,” the commission said.
The commission said that as per the latest report from the Women and Child Development Department, there are 35.3 lakh (94 percent) normal children, 2.18 lakh (6 percent) children with moderate acute malnutrition (MAM), and 5,556 (0.15 percent) children with severe acute malnutrition (SAM) in Karnataka.
T M Vijay Bhaskar, Convenor of the Karnataka Commission and Former Chief Secretary of the state submitted the recommendations report to Chief Minister Bommai on Friday. (Supplied)
“The number of SAM children is quite low as per the figures given by the WCD. However, the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) gives a higher percentage. Children who are moderately malnourished may easily slip into the SAM category. They require additional nutrition to lift them to the normal category,” the report stated.
The NFHS data from 2019-20 for Karnataka showed that there was an improvement in child nutritional status indicators since the previous survey, from 2015-16.
Despite this, the percentage of children aged below 5 who are stunted (height-for-age) was still unacceptably high at 35.4 percent, as was that for those who were underweight (weight-for-age) — 32.9 percent — and those who are wasted (weight-for-height): 19.5 percent
The experts opined that between conception and age three, a child’s brain undergoes an impressive amount of change, and providing better nutrition to poor children below the age of three would be one of the best investments that a government could make.
Hence, the committee recommended that the Women and Child Development (WCD) Department give five eggs per week to children aged six months to three years and normal children aged 6 months to 3 years be given two eggs per week.
The committee also called upon the WCD Department to ensure more steps to improve the method of measurement of malnutrition in anganwadis and reduce the gap between the figures reported by the Anganwadi Welfare Centres and NFHS figures.
Agreeing with the committee’s understanding that many anganwadis do not weigh properly and severely malnourished children are not picked up, community health expert Dr Sylvia Karpagam told South First, “Malnutrition is something that is best prevented than treated because once it has occurred, the child is at risk of both long and short-term complications.”
She explained that in many anganwadis she and her team visited, children were not being weighed properly.
“Even SAM children were not picked up. It is difficult for anganwadi teachers to explain why some get eggs twice a week and others get five days a week,” she added.
Public health doctors and nutrition experts appreciated the commission’s recommendations and said that the Karnataka government should not delay in implementing them.
Dr Veena Shatrugna, former deputy director at the National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) in Hyderabad, welcomed the recommendations of the Vijay Bhaskar commission and told South First, “Five eggs per week for SAM and MAM kids aged six months to three years are welcome. This is based on the treatment protocols followed worldwide,”
Representational pic of children in anganwadi (Wikimedia Commons)
She, however, said that the children might initially require treatment of infections if any, with small feeds every two-three hours till their appetites return.
Eggs and milk with a cereal-pulse meal are absolutely essential for children to return to normal flights, she added.
She said that even normal kids would benefit from eggs if given every day, or at least every alternate day.
Karpagam added that the recommendation by nutritionists that all children need eggs five days a week would help prevent malnutrition as well as avoid the situation of SAM children not being recorded.
Similarly, educationist Niranjanaradhya VP told South First, “I fully endorse the recommendation. It is time to address the long-pending issue in the best of children. It is important to make provision in your forthcoming budget in order to provide the recommended quantity from the very next academic year.”
The commission has also recommended that under the Ksheera Bhagya Scheme, milk be distributed to anganwadi children six days a week as opposed to the current five days a week.
In Karnataka Nutrition Rehabilitation Centres (NRC) have been opened in all districts. However, the commission noted that these are underutilised.
The experts noted that the number of SAM children was now only about 5,000 in the State according to DWCD figures.
“But many of the 2.18 lakh MAM children may be borderline SAM cases. If borderline MAM children are admitted to NRCs, they can be prevented from becoming severely malnourished,” the report said.
The Central government prescribes that only SAM children be admitted to NRCs. At the state level, some instructions have been issued to admit borderline MAM children in the NRCs, noted the report.
The commission also stated that to avoid audit objections and to prevent slippage to SAM status, the state government could provide the required funds and issue a suitable GO permitting NRCs to admit borderline MAM children as well.
“The period of stay of SAM and MAM children may be reduced considering the difficulties that parents may face. The compensatory wage rate paid to the parents may be enhanced to MGNREGA wage rate,” it said.
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