By the end of the year, the Odisha government has been directed to come up with a strategy which will put an end to severe acute malnutrition (SAM) and bring down moderate acute malnutrition (MAM) by half. This directive comes from the Orissa High Court, stated a report in PTI.
It was on Thursday, May 18, that this order was passed by the High Court bench with Chief Justice S Muralidhar and Justice Gourishankar Satapathy. As many as 11 children had reportedly died in Danagadi block, Jajpur district, Odisha and it was a public interest litigation (PIL) filed against this that the Orissa High Court was hearing.
What is SAM and what is MAM?
Malnutrition which ails the children is divided into two categories.
Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM): If under this category, children are in the red zone and are at a high risk of contracting a secondary infection
Moderate Acute Malnutrition (MAM): Children under this category are considered to be in the yellow zone meaning that it is not life-threatening
It was the order of the court that a meeting should be convened by the Chief Secretary so that a plan can be mapped out to meet the aforementioned targets.
Also, secretaries of various departments have been asked to meet and come up with a plan in a month and work to achieve it. The departments which need to meet, as directed by the court, are:
- Women and Child Development
- School and Mass Education
- Health and Family Welfare
- Tribal Welfare
- Food Supplies
- Consumer Welfare
Women and Child Development Department, during the hearing, informed that out of the approximately 36 lakh children in Odisha, 28,541 (as of April 2023) are under the SAM category and around 86,000 in the MAM category.
As the petitioner mentioned that other districts could also be suffering the same fate, officials of the Keonjhar district have also been asked to determine how many children are under SAM and MAM categories.
The next hearing will be on August 1, 2023.
