4.76 lakh Meerut children to be weighed in anti-malnutrition drive

MEERUT: State authorities on Monday announced that the government would conduct a drive in a bid to strengthen the fight against

malnutrition

and check children across the state. Uttar Pradesh chief secretary Rahul Bhatnagar , while addressing all district magistrates and divisional commissioners via video conference, announced that the state government would conduct weighing days from December 10-12 in which a total of 2.78 crore children across the state will be weighed.

“Anganwadi workers must not hide the weight of the children weighed on the days. During the winters, children often wear extra clothing and that can throw off the readings. To get a more accurate reading, children should be asked to wear less woolen clothes while they are being weighed. To ensure that the program is successful, we have installed controls at the state-level. After the last weighing day, we had identified 14 lakh malnourished kids throughout the state,” chief secretary Rahul Bhatnagar told officials during the meeting.

According to Meerut divisional commissioner Alok Sinha, a total of 4.76 lakh children from across Meerut districts are going to be weighed over the three days of the drive. Of these, 3 lakh children live in urban areas. Village heads and officials will be trained from December 6-7.

“In Meerut district, a total of 4.76 lakh children will be weighed on December 10 and 12. Of these, three lakh children are in urban areas and the rest are in rural areas,” said Sinha.

Speaking to TOI, B Chandrakala, Meerut district magistrate, said, “The district has a total of 2,076 anganwadi centers. On December 10, children will be weighed at 72 centers in rural areas, 180 in Rajpura block, 141 in Kharkhoda, 154 in Jani and 126 in Rota. On December 12, children will be weighed at 167 centers in

Parikshitgarh

, 118 in

Hastinapur

, 163 in Mawana, 195 in Machra, 151 in Daurala, 144 in Sardhana and 150 in Saroorpur.”