'Budget cuts hurt fight against malnutrition'

The government's main programme to fight child malnutrition has been hit by Budget cuts that make it difficult to pay wages of millions of health workers, Maneka Gandhi, the women and child welfare minister, said on Monday. The government in February slashed social sector budgets to boost infrastructure spending to fasten the pace of economic recovery. But the cuts drew criticism for blunting the country's efforts to tackle one of the world's highest rates of child malnutrition. Four of 10 stunted children in the world are Indian. Gandhi said the current Budget was only enough to pay salaries of 2.7 million health workers until January. "We still have problems because our cut has still not been restored. Literally, it's a month-to-month suspense on whether we can meet wages," Gandhi told Reuters in an interview. "It really calls for huge attention." She said the February budget cut, which saw her ministry's budget slashed by half to $1.6 billion, had hit her plans to strengthen the fight against malnutrition.