MEAL STORM IN GUJARAT

In the last week of July, tragedy struck Ludbai village in the Nakhatrana taluka of Gujarat’s Kutch district when five children lost their lives.

- Jumana Shah

The village’s sarpanch, Jabbar Jat, attributed the deaths to malnutrition, spotlighting the dire state of affairs. However, Shailesh Prajapati, the district development officer, linked only two of the deaths to malnutrition. This grim incident gained significant coverage in the local media and underscored a disturbing revelation from the NITI Aayog’s Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) report released just two weeks prior: a staggering 38 out of every 100 children in Gujarat suffer from malnutrition.

This comprehensive index—in its second iteration following the 2021 edition—assesses the severity of poverty across states and districts based on three critical dimensions: health and nutrition, education, and standard of living. According to the report, which relies on data from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS), Gujarat managed to marginally reduce its poverty rate from 18.5 per cent in 2015-16 to 11.7 per cent in 2019-21. The state also managed to reduce its malnutrition rates from 41.37 per cent to 38.09 per cent in the same period, but the improvements fall short when compared to the states with similar GDPs and the efforts invested in addressing the nutritional needs of children.