- Sunday, 12 April 2026
Cases of malnutrition on children rife in Karnali Province
Hemanta KC
Jajarkot, July 8 : The cases of malnutrition in children in Karnali Province are rampant in recent years.
A total of 20,092 children were admitted to 654 hospitals in the Province within the current fiscal year 2021/20, according to Karnali Health Directorate.
The Province has 10 districts
recorded the highest cases of malnutrition in the Dailekh (578 cases) district followed
by Surkhet (400 cases) and Mugu (91cases).
Apart from malnutrition, cases of
anemia, stunting, and low weight at birth were also recorded in children in
Kalikot, Jajarkot, and Mugu districts.
According to Kalpana Rokaya, a health
worker in the health post in Barekot Limsa in Jajarkot, two children died due to
malnutrition in Jajarkot last fiscal year.
Similarly, Karnali Province
Hospital's senior pediatrician Dr. Nawaraj KC asserted that malnutrition could
not be alleviated until poverty is eradicated.
According to him, babies born to
younger mothers weigh only one or two kilograms. "Malnutrition-related
cases were growing since mothers are unable to breastfeed their newborns on
time," he shared.
A total of 55 percent of children
below five years were suffering from under-nutrition, over-nutrition,
malnutrition, underweight, obesity, stunting, and wasting among others.
Malnourished children and newborns
apart, 166 new mothers died in lack of timely treatment in the Province over
nine years, the statistics of the Directorate revealed.
The federal government introduced
Multi-sectoral Nutrition Plan in the fiscal year 2015/16 in the Karnali zone with an
objective to make all local levels nutrition-friendly by 2030.
The federal government also
allocated Rs 190 million for nutrition-related programs and projects for 79
local levels in Karnali Province for 2020/21, according to the Directorate.
The budget is being mobilized for distributing nutritional foods and launching an awareness drive on nutrition and sanitation among others. (RSS)
