Even as the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati waxes eloquent about the welfare of all through her ‘Sarvjan Hitay’ schemes, many of the children in the state, Ghazipur in particular, continue to battle hunger pangs.

The recent annual malnutrition survey done for the Centre under the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) threw up shocking figures for the district.

Ghazipur has around 5,000 children who suffer from severe malnutrition (Grade IV).

The report specifies that across the five states of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana and Delhi, Ghazipur has the highest number of children suffering from Grade IV malnourishment.

Worse, these children can barely be given the medical attention that they urgently need, as sources say, that health services in the district are abysmal.

The office of the district child development programme spells out Ghazipur’s shocking statistics — out of the 1,63,150 children below age ten, 5,532 children are severely malnourished.

The situation is the worst in Barachar block of the district. Here, 18,319 children are malnourished, out of which 3,049 are in Grade IV, which means they need urgent medical attention.

In Jakhania block, of the 5,206 children, 56 suffer from severe malnutrition.

In Manihari block, out of a total of 19,846 children, 199 are severely malnourished.

Under the ICDS, the Centre spends several crores every year to tackle the problem of malnourishment among children below six.

The programme includes identification of children under six, monitoring their health regularly and providing the supply of nutrition supplements to undernourished children, apart from medical support to malnourished children.

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