Khandwa, Jan 1 (IANS) Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav, on Thursday, offered prayers at the Raj Rajeshwari Tripur Sundari Temple located on the banks of Narmada river during a visit on the occasion of the ‘New Year’.

Chief Minister Yadav accompanied his wife Seema Yadav during the prayer.

Later on Thursday, the Chief Minister visited a maternal and child health centre being run by the Raj Rajeshwari Temple Trust, during which he held interaction with women and staff members to obtain information about the health services being provided at the centre.

On this occasion, Chief Minister Yadav also distributed nutritional food materials to pregnant and lactating women and extended best wishes to them, the Chief Minister’s Office said on his official X account.

Notably, malnutrition has been unending and a serious issue in Madhya Pradesh despite a huge amount of money being spent year after year from the Central and state governments.

According to official data tabled in the state Assembly in August 2025, 85,330 children have been admitted to the Nutrition Rehabilitation Centres in tribal blocks from 2020 to June 2025.

Yearly admissions of children here are rising sharply from 11,566 in 2020-21 to 20,741 in 2024-25, the state government data said.

The state government’s data revealed that more than 10 lakh children in Madhya Pradesh are malnourished, including 1.36 lakh severely stunted.

While the national rate of severe and moderate malnutrition in children under the age of five years was 5.4 per cent in April 2025, in Madhya Pradesh it stood at a staggering 7.79 per cent.

The crisis is compounded by anaemia. As much as 57 per cent of women in Madhya Pradesh are anaemic, weakening the next generation even before birth.

As per the government record, Madhya Pradesh spends Rs 980 per child at Nutrition Rehabilitation Centres.

In Anganwadis, severely malnourished children are allocated Rs 12 per day, while normal children receive Rs 8.

In 2025-26, the state government had allocated Rs 4,895 crore, yet ground realities remain unchanged.

However, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led state government has said that Madhya Pradesh has moved out of the ‘BIMARU’ tag in 2023.

–IANS

pd/khz