Summary:
more-inAn 84% drop in the number of underweight children and an unexplained change in terminology for identifying malnourished children in Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) schools, and non-governmental organisation (NGO) Praja Foundation has raised a red flag on this. However, in 2016-17, the Right to Information data obtained by the NGO shows no malnourished students. “If the number of underweight students has fallen so dramatically, why did the municipal commissioner give an extra allocation of ?27.38 crore for nutritive supplementary meals in BMC schools from the academic year 2018-19?” he asked. According to the report, 64,681 students from Class I to Class X were found to be malnourished during BMC health check-ups in 2015-16. Firstly, they have changed the nomenclature of malnourished to underweight even as the formula of ‘weight to height’ still remains the same..