More than 2 lakh children in 20 of Gujarat's 34 districts malnourished: Govt to assembly

GANDHINAGAR: (Mar 14) The Gujarat government on Saturday informed the assembly that more than 2 lakh children in 20 out of 34 districts in the state were malnourished and that it was taking various steps to improve the situation.

Responding to a set of questions raised by Congress MLAs during Question Hour, Women and Child Development Minister Manisha Vakil informed that out of 2.05 lakh malnourished children recorded in 20 districts, nearly 1.69 lakh were 'underweight', while 36,805 fell in the category of 'severely underweight' as on January 2026.

According to data tabled by Vakil, the tribal-dominated Panchmahal district in central Gujarat accounted for the highest number of malnourished children (20,762), followed by Banaskantha (19,391), Kheda (18,590), Sabarkantha (16,588), Dahod (16,388), Chhotaudepur (16,322), Narmada (8,881) and Mahisagar (7,838).