Govt, Oppn spar over malnutrition data in Gujarat assembly

Gandhinagar: The ruling BJP and the Opposition sparred in the Gujarat assembly on Thursday, with the Congress alleging that malnutrition among children in the state remains a serious concern despite the BJP being in power for nearly three decades. The BJP hit back by stating that the Congress was quoting outdated figures. Speaking during a cut motion on budgetary demands, Congress MLA Jignesh Mevani said that despite the BJP being in power in Gujarat for 28 years, malnutrition among children was still very high. "Forty out of 100 children are malnourished. A very large section of them are tribals," Mevani said while speaking on the budgetary demands of the women and child development (WCD) department. In response, state WCD minister Manisha Vakil launched an attack on the Congress, stating that the opposition quoted figures from the 2019 National Family Health Survey (NFHS). "The state govt is now using technological tools like the Poshan tracker to monitor efforts at reducing malnutrition. As of Jan 2026, only 11.4% children remain malnourished in the state," the minister told the house amid interruption from the opposition. Opposition MLAs were further irked after Vakil commented that it was the Congress that was suffering from malnutrition as a result of its reduced strength in the assembly. The Congress has only 12 MLAs in the assembly.Congress MLA Shailesh Parmar raised a point of order, objecting to the minister's remark. "The govt should treat concerns raised by the Opposition seriously. An official report states that there are four districts in Gujarat that feature in the 10 most malnourished districts of the country," he said.Continuing her speech on budgetary demands of the WCD department, Vakil said that the Poshan tracker conducts real-time monitoring of more than 53,000 anganwadis and stated the state govt's resolve to make Gujarat malnutrition-free.She alleged that the functioning of anganwadis lacked transparency when the Congress was in power, saying that during the Congress regime, termites ate away at books and there was no record of where ration meant for anganwadis went.