Mumbai: In last 5 yrs, municipal councillors have asked only 61 questions on child nutrition

On matters of child health in the city, city's municipal councillors have asked few questions on child nutrition. In the last five years, during committee meetings in the civic body, around 61 questions related to child nutrition and steps taken to reduce malnourishment in children were raised, a Right To Information (RTI) query found.

As per the RTI reply received by Praja Foundation, 61 questions were raised by the municipal councillors on child nutrition issues. The 61 questions were asked by 54 corporators during health committee meetings between 2013 and 2018.

The data also stated that the municipal councillors asked only three questions in 2016-17 and 10 questions in 2017-18 on the child nutrition issue. In 2017-18, Bandra area (H/W) ward ranks first and Borivali area (R/C) ward ranks second among 24 wards on underweight students in BMC school.

Milind Mhaske, director of Praja Foundation, said, "While the number of question asked this year 2017-18 is more than the previous year i.e 2016-17. But the issue needs to be addressed by the municipal representative more often in order to reduce the number of underweight children and provide nutrition to the underweight children."

As per the Right To Information (RTI) response received from the public health department from BMC, over 73,112 students were found to be underweight in 2016-17 and 11,720 students were found to be underweight in 2017-18.

The data also stated that 147 across the Maharashtra state questions related to child nutrition were asked by 26 MLAs in three of the assembly sessions from winter session 2016 to monsoon session 2017.

Milind Mhaske, director of Praja Foundation, added, "MLAs have raised an issue of nutrition in the state, however, the Mumbai city-related questions were only 13 since winter session of 2014 till monsoon session 2017."

State Of Affairs

Data also stated that across the state, 147 questions related to child nutrition were asked by 26 MLAs in three of the Assembly sessions, from winter session 2016 to monsoon session 2017