India's UNICEF Ambassador Aamir Khan raises concerns about malnutrition in Nepal

India's United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) ambassador and actor Aamir Khan has raised concerns on the issue of malnutrition in Nepal after meeting health workers and discussing their grievances on his three-day visit to the Himalayan nation.

Ambassador Khan said that UNICEF was keen that he should expand his responsibility not just as a national ambassador, but for the entire region of South Asia.

"Malnutrition is a very, very important issue faced by all of our societies in this part of the world. 40 percent of children in Nepal are malnourished and 48 per cent in India, so that's a very high number, which is almost one in every two children. So it is an issue which I think we all need to address very strongly," said Khan.

During his stay, Khan visited various villages in Kapilvastu District to check the functioning of health facility centres and initiated awareness on the issue.

"Yes, I think that they are doing a wonderful job because they are working on the grass-root level women. They are the foot soldiers of this, in this battle against malnutrition. So certainly they doing very important job and all encouragement need to be given to them. Right now, I personally feel that they should also be very well paid," Khan added.

Among the villages in the Kapilvastu district, he spent an hour in Pakadi village health centre and observed how the health workers screen children with malnutrition under factors of height, weight and other measurements.

Meanwhile, he also visited Simrauli village where he met mothers and female community health volunteers (FCHV) and interacted with them.

Khan shared the UNICEF-initiated nutrition programme to deliver the importance of nutrition especially for expecting mothers as the problem of undernourishment among children can be curbed if they are well fed at initial stages.

Actor Aamir Khan is also contributing to raise a wide range of social issues across India through his television talk show Satyamev Jayate.