Bhubaneswar: Around 5.11 lakh children aged below five are underweight in the state, and of them 26129 are grossly underweight.
Women and child development minister Prafulla Kumar Samal said this in the Assembly Friday. In his written reply to MLA Dilip Ray the minister said that there are 36.76 lakh children aged under five in the state.
Keonjhar has the maximum number of underweight children (47,634) followed by Kalahandi with 38,337, Gajnam with 37,824 and Sundargarh with 35,006.
The minister said that figure of pregnant women in the state at present is 3.70 lakh and lactating mothers 3.54 lakh.
Samal said that around 75 per cent of the children in Sambalpur and 73 per cent aged between six and 59 months in Sonepur and Koraput suffer from anaemia. In Malkangiri and Nawarangpur 72 per cent children have anaemia.
The district-wise incidence of anaemia among women is 75 per cent in Sambalpur, 71 per cent in Nawarangpur and Malkangiri, 70 per cent in Kalahandi, 69 per cent in Bargarh and Sonepur and 65 per cent in Nuapada, Jharsuguda, Koraput and Sundargarh.
PNN