Only Tk 58cr for nutrition of 6 crore kids

Only Tk 58 crore has been allocated for over six crore children of the country under the National Nutrition Services programme in the proposed budget, says a finance ministry report on the outlay.

The report analysed expenditures of seven ministries and observed that despite the country's success in a number of health indicators, including reduction of child and maternal mortalities, low weight of children due to malnutrition remains a big challenge.

Again, the report said the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare would be spending 24.78 percent of its allocation of Tk 175.16 billion for children-related activities.

In the last fiscal year, the ministry's expenditure on the same issue was 26.16 percent of its Tk 148.41 billion budget.

The report said 2.65 crore of over 6 crore children, who form 37.9 percent of the total population of the country, live below the poverty line.

The six other ministries are --- Ministry of Primary and Mass Education, Ministry of Education Ministry, Ministry of Social Welfare, Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, Local Government and Rural Development and Co-operatives, and Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief.

Social welfare ministry which runs shelter homes, children development (correctional facilities) centres, orphanages and programmes for children with disability and street children received an allocation of Tk 42.73 billion.

Of the allocation, 18.61 percent will be spent in programmes focusing on children.

During the last five years, the average allocation for the ministry was 0.20 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) and 1 percent of the total outlay.

The report observed that many small overlapping social protection programmes, which were implemented by a number of ministries and divisions, had little impact on the targeted population.

Lack of coordination among the authorities concerned was also pointed out in the report.

The Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, which works for establishing child rights and ensuring child protection and development, will spend 38.4 percent of it's

Tk 21.51 crore budget. It was 33.39 percent of the ministry's budget last year.

Out of the seven ministries, primary and mass education ministry has the highest proportion -- 99.4 percent -- of its budgetary allocation for children while local government and rural development ministry has the lowest -- 10.03 percent.