How a pilot project is reducing malnourishment among Jharkhand children

Jharkhand has the highest poverty rate in India--13 million out of 33 million population live below the poverty line, according to a World Bank profile of the state

A frail young nursing mother Purnima Devi, 25, clutched her emaciated baby boy, 21-month-old Gorango Malakar, at the Malnourishment Treatment Centre (MTC) in Bokaro, Jharkhand on August 11, 2018. Weighing just 4.8 kg, the baby was in the ‘red zone’, indicating severe acute malnourishment.

Jharkhand is among the top five Indian states with malnourished--including stunted, wasted and underweight--children, according to an IndiaSpend analysis of data from the ministry of health and family welfare’s National Family Health Survey, 2015-16 (NFHS-4). Almost half (45.3%) of Jharkhand’s children below the age of five are