With push from CM, malnourished children in Uttarakhand show signs of better health

An innovative adoption campaign launched in 2019 for highly malnourished children in Uttarakhand has begun to bear fruit with nearly all of them doing well on different health parameters, an official release said here.

Six children have become absolutely malnutrition free, the grades of eleven have improved and the weight of 207 has increased satisfactorily, the release said.

The acutely malnourished children had been adopted by ministers, MLAs and officials in response to Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat's initiative in September last year aimed at setting the state free from the scourge.

The chief minister himself had adopted a two-and-a-half-year-old girl named Yogita who weighed just 8.5 kg at the time.

On the success of the innovative campaign, Rawat said the campaign has begun to produce the desired results.

"Children are the country's future. Our aim is to rid the state completely of malnutrition. The weight of nearly all the adopted children has increased satisfactorily," he said.

Ministers, people's representatives and officials who adopted acutely malnourished children as part of the drive also remained in constant touch with their parents to keep an eye on their dietary regime and monitor their progress on health parameters, the release stated.