As many as 61 children die every day in the state of Madhya Pradesh due to malnutrition and various other diseases.
It stands in stark contrast to what the Madhya Pradesh government has been claiming about protecting children and children’s healthcare.
Minister for Woman and Child Development Archana Chitnis in the state Assembly provided the information in the state assembly in response to a question by Congress MLA Ramnivas Rawat.
To a question on how many children were found under-weight and how many of them died between February and May 2018, Chitnis replied that a total of 1,183,985 children were found to be under-weight and 103,083 out of them were critically low on weight.
She further informed that 6,024 infants aged up to one year and 7,332 children between one and five years died between the period due to malnutrition and other diseases.
This shows the Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led Madhya Pradesh government’s dismal performance in the children’s healthcare as well as in the health sector overall.