Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) launched a special pilot project of training 1000 anganwadi workers of Vidisha district in Madhya Pradesh. Funded by UNICEF, the project is likely to be introduced in 30 districts of Madhya Pradesh. "Vidisha has been selected keeping in view the high rate of malnutrition in the district,' said V.N Rajasekharan Pillai, vice-chancellor, IGNOU.

Use of soya products can fight malnutrition better in both rural and urban areas as, among protein-rich mushroom, spirulina, soybean and pulses, soybean has 40 per cent protein content and provides cheapest protein, says an expert. ''In Madhya Pradesh, a very large section of population in villages is living below poverty line. They are deprived of affordable nutritious food and their food is lacking protein and fat content,'' the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research's former director MS Virdi said.

Children in South Asia are bearing the brunt of spiralling food prices as malnutrition is on the rise with millions at risk, the UN children's fund said. The price of rice and wheat has doubled under the worldwide pinch. Poor households are consuming one less meal or substituting expensive ingredients, David Toole, regional director of UNICEF South Asia, told a press briefing on Tuesday.

Poverty causes malnutrition, but malnutrition also contributes to poverty through increased morbidity, impaired development in children, and reduced capacity for work and productivity in adults. In rich countries food is a relatively small part of household consumption (10

About 73 per cent of the street children in the Dhaka city suffer from chronic malnutrition while mortality and morbidity status among the street dwellers has reached an alarming level due to lack of basic healthcare services. This was revealed at a seminar organised in Dhaka on Wednesday by ICDDR,B to release the findings of a study on

RESIDENTS of Dhaka city, and others across the country, see daily lines of hundreds of people in fixed price shops in various neighbourhoods. Being lucky enough to still be insulated from food inflation, I ventured into one of the shops to obtain first hand information. Each outlet has 1,000 kgs of rice, the product most in demand, which are sold in a maximum of 5 kg parcels. The official claimed that there are almost 2,000 such shops in the country with an additional 2,000 more to be opened.

The global food crisis has brought on riots in about a dozen countries and left many panicked world leaders scrambling for answers. Alarming increases in once-affordable basic food staples such as rice, corn, and wheat have made millions more of the world's poor vulnerable to hunger and malnutrition. Past food market emergencies have been mainly regional in scope.

Speakers at a roundtable yesterday said ready-made garment (RMG) workers are subjected to a variety of physical, chemical and biological hazards due to use of natural and synthetic materials in the factories. Wage discrimination, long working hours, unhygienic environment, lack of water and sanitation facilities and inadequate rest and sleeping time are causing malnutrition and many other health problems to garment workers, they added.

The health ministry is to provide therapeutic milk to children with severe acute malnutrition (SAM) in hospitals in the Wanni through the UNICEF on the recommendation made by the Consultative Committee on Humanitarian Assistance (CCHA), subcommittee on health. "For all moderately malnourished children, the Regional Director of Health Services would provide children with Thriposha in clinics, under the supplementary feeding programme,' the Disaster Management and Human Rights Ministry said quoting Health Ministry Secretary Dr. Kahandaliyanage.

Poor communities in the hills and mountains of far and mid-western Nepal face a serious threat to food security due to this year's poor winter harvest, says a UN body. Along with bad crops resulting in a 20-40 percent fall in production, rising food prices in these areas where poverty and malnutrition are very high has triggered this painful situation, states the latest crop situation update prepared by the World Food Program-Nepal.

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