Nutrition rehabilitation centre opened in Hooghly

Kolkata: The Health department will operate a nutrition rehabilitation centre in Hooghly for malnourished children.

A 10-bedded nutrition rehabilitation has come up at Kamarpukur of Hooghly where children suffering from malnutrition will be given special care and treatment.

According to sources, the children will be kept at this centre and nutritious foods will be provided to them for a certain period of time. All the services will be free-of-cost.

Many children across the state were affected following the Covid pandemic. The normal functioning of Anganwadi centres was hampered during Covid, adversely affecting the children.

In view of this, the state Health department will manage the centre and ensure that children suffering from malnutrition undergo proper treatment at the newly-set up unit. Meanwhile, the Centre has allegedly stopped providing funds under the National Health Mission projects in Bengal affecting the crucial services related to the nutrition of pregnant women and newborns and their vaccination.

Bengal is supposed to spend a total of Rs 2,200 crore for various projects under the National Health Mission (NHM) in this financial year, around 60 per cent of which should be given by the Centre which would be around Rs 1,320 crore.

The state is expected to bear a cost of around Rs 840 crore for NHM but the Narendra Modi government has not given any funds to Bengal so far.

The Supreme Court last year asked the Centre to place before it the data on deaths due to starvation and malnutrition across the country besides a model plan

to implement the community kitchen scheme.