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Alarming malnutrition pushing children out of school - I |
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Written by Administrator
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Sunday, 05 July 2009 |
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Despite several schemes, chronic malnutrition persists in Tamilnadu and this is very likely a major cause for continuing poor performance and high dropout rates of children in Tamilnadu’s government schools. Ironically, the state leads the country in nutritional interventions and has improved its standing in comparison to other states in the last two decades since the scaling up of nutrition schemes. Yet, nutritional status have only marginally improved and in some cases like the anaemia count going up, perplexing activists, policy researchers, and funding organisations. The state is a study in contradictions: It gave the country its direct nutrition intervention in the form of the Noon-meal Programme (NMP), and yet has alarming levels of hunger, according to the International Food Policy Research Institute's India State Hunger Index (ISHI) of 2008. The index gave the state this rating from a choice of: low, moderate, serious (6 states), alarming (10 states including TN), extremely alarming (Madhya Pradesh). The ratings are based on the prevalence of calorie-energy deficiency, child mortality and the number of children below the age of 5 who are underweight. To read further http://www.indiatogether.org/2009/jun/hlt-malnutr1.htm Krithika Ramalingam is a Chennai-based development journalist. This article is part of a series on education sponsored by Confederation of Indian Organisations for Service and Advocacy, in India Together.
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