BAJURA, JULY 14
An emergency nutrition program has been launched in Swami Kartik Khapar Rural Municipality of Bajura district.
The program was implemented after news of rampant malnutrition in Muktikot village of Swamikartik -1 appeared in The Himalayan Times and other national dailies, according to Bharat Bahadur Rokaya, chair of the rural municipality.
The program has been implemented throughout the rural municipality in cooperation with Nepal government, World Food Program (WFP), IDS Nepal (Integrated Development Society, Nepal), according to Prakash Koirala, executive director of IDS Nepal.
This program has been scheduled for three months for the time being, informed Koirala.
The program's goal is to provide nutritious food to pregnant and lactating women, as well as children aged 6 to 23 months.
According to Dhan Bahadur Saud, Bajura program Coordinator of WFP, 512 children and 619 pregnant women will receive 100 grams of nutritious food daily or 3 kg per month for three months.
Although the news in multiple national dailies focused on malnutrition in Muktikot village, Koirala added that the program was implemented in the entire rural municipality because the risk was spread across the rural municipality.
"Muktikot village has a high rate of malnutrition," said Paras Bahadur Shahi, Chief Administrative Officer of the rural municipality.
A team of health workers who arrived in the village some time ago discovered that 343 people were malnourished, with 23 suffering from severe malnutrition and 55 suffering from moderate malnutrition, according to the rural municipality.
According to Kuber Bahadur Shahi, the rural municipality's information officer, 29 of the 243 pregnant women were severely malnourished, while 71 were moderately malnourished.
Similarly, 12 children aged 10 to 14 were severely malnourished, with 53 moderately malnourished and 56 emaciated. Two adolescents aged 15 to 19 were severely malnourished, 30 were moderately malnourished, and 29 underfed.
41 per cent of the children in Muktikot village are malnourished, according to Health Office, Bajura. The village has a high fertility rate, high children mortality rate, and a low use of family planning tools, Bajura health office added.
Every year, many children die of malnutrition in the village.
