Gujarat's Women and Child Development (WCD) Minister Bhanuben Babariya informed that over 1.25 lakh children in the state were malnourished. She was responding to a set of questions raised by Congress MLAs during Question Hour in the Legislative Assembly today, March 16.

Out of the total 1,25,707 malnourished children in the state, 1,01,586 were underweight, while 24,121 fell in the severely underweight category, the Minister said. In her written replies, she denoted that the tribal-dominated Narmada district accounted for the highest number of malnourished children (12,492), followed by Vadodara (11,322), Anand (9,615), Sabarkantha (7,270), Surat (6,967) and Bharuch (5,863), as mentioned in a report by PTI.

Babariya added the state government was taking various steps to improve the situation. "Children in the age group of 3 to 6 years are given hot breakfast and lunch at anganwadis (child care centres). In addition, fruits are given to children twice a week," she said.

"For children in the age group of six months to three years, the (WCD) Department provides seven packets of Bal Shakti (a mix of nutritional powder for women), a take-home ration, each weighing 500 grams, 10 packets to severely underweight kids aged 3 to 6, and four food packets to underweight children. The state government also provides double-fortified salt, fortified oil as well as wheat flour to anganwadi children and their mothers to tackle malnutrition," added the Minister, as per PTI.