Raipur: The Chhattisgarh Government on Wednesday admitted that over 1 lakh children are suffering from malnutrition in the tribal-dominated Bastar region.
In a written reply to a question of Kuldeep Singh Juneja (Congress) in the Legislative Assembly, Women and Child Development Minister Lata Usendi said 1,15,093 children are suffering from malnutrition in Bastar division comprising seven districts as of December 2012.
Of these, 31,034 children are severely malnourished, while 84,059 fall in the category of average malnutrition, she said.
The highest number of malnourished kids are in Bastar district (35,034), followed by Kanker (27,482), Kondagaon (17,308), Dantewada (10,871), Bijapur (10,083), Sukma (8,811) and Narayanpur (5,504), Usendi said.
The Minister, however, denied any death due to malnutrition from 2008 till now in the Naxal-affected region in Central Chhattisgarh.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, December 12, 2012, 21:02