Malnutrition among North, East children reaches fifty percent

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 May 2010, 04:21 GMT]
Malnutrition among children in the North and Eastern provinces has reached forty-five percent against the national average of 29 percent, according to a report issued by the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS).

In the two provinces malnutrition among boys has reached fifty percent and among girls about 42 percent, the survey further reveals.

At the district level, within the Northern and Eastern provinces, Batticaloa 53 percent and Vavuniya 51 percent show the worst levels of child malnutrition.

The child malnutrition in Trincomalee is 45 percent, Amparaai 44 percent and Jaffna 43 percent, the report adds.

The prevalence of child malnutrition among uneducated mothers is 63 percent. As the education level of mothers rises, the rate of child malnutrition declines to 54 percent among primary educated mothers, 42 percent among secondary educated mothers and 36 percent among tertiary educated mothers, the report states.