By Prasenjit Chowdhury
The world's population has continued to grow while its food production has not.

Aimed at containing the increasing number of malnutrition cases among women and children in the country, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday constituted a high level committee to monitor implementation of government schemes dealing with the subject.

It was 1995-96 when elections were round the corner, a development saga christened KBK or Kalahandi, Balangir and Koraput Plan was unveiled. Its newer version Revised Long Term Action Plan (RLTAP) for the eight KBK comprising undivided Koraput, Balangir and Kalahandi districts was brought in 1998-99 in a sub-plan mode.

Children continue to die of malnutrition in Madhya Pradesh despite the strict instructions of the Bhopal high court to contain malnutrition deaths in some of the most backward districts of the state. This was found by a fact-finding team by a group of NGOs in Satna and Sheopur districts which conducted a study for a week in October.

THE final five kilometres to Ramnagar (Khokla), as the village is officially called, in Satna district of Madhya Pradesh has to be done on foot down a hill thick with shrubs and bushes. As we enter the village, eager eyes scan us for food or some other kind of livelihood support only to droop in disappointment once they learn that the wait has been in vain.

More than 15 per cent of the children, living in the camps set up by the government for the internally displaced persons (IDPs) of Bajaur tribal region, are suffering from malnutrition.

According to a preliminary report of a survey by the United Nations (UN), prevalence of the global acute malnutrition in children was up to 15 per cent in the Kacha Garhi camp.

Naveen Patnaik

BY SUDHIR K. SINGH
BHOPAL