Pune: Children suffering from malnutrition are now to be given all the medical attention by Pune Zilla Parishad (ZP) with the combined efforts of the pediatric department of Sassoon General Hospital (SGH). The project will be implemented with the help of doctors and healthcare workers from the district.
Pune Zilla Parishad (ZP) has come up with a detailed program to curb down the number of malnourished children in the district. The nation-wide lockdown has impacted millions of lives across the globe, according to the reports the number of malnutrition cases had increased this year substantially in Pune districts. According to the report published in March, the total number of malnourished cases was 946, the count now has reached up to 1,122. Which includes 136 moderately malnourished children and 40 severely acutely malnourished children.
Mostly it has been observed that the parents of these children lack income and food. The lockdown further added up to the already existing malnutrition numbers. During the lockdown, the Indian migrant worker faced many challenges and hardships which worsened the situation for kids and led to an increase in cases of malnutrition.
Pune ZP has now launched ‘Malnutrition free Pune’ to combat such cases. This drive is led by some medical experts and health workers, as part of this initiative, extensive screening of all the malnourished children is to be done, with doctors filling up detailed forms to decide the future course. The process of screening will be completed by December 15.
ZP will be bearing the financial issues, and will also be launching an initiative for the affected children to take care of their nutritional needs. Ayush Prasad, CEO, Pune ZP said, “we have conducted three rounds of a survey on the kids. Energy-rich food has also been distributed to them. As many of their parents are not aware of proper nutritional habits or are extremely poor, adoption drives have also been launched whereby financially privileged people from the village adopt the kids to take care of their nutritional needs.