THARPARKAR: The lack of food and resources in Tharparkar has resulted in the death of 11 children in the last three days.
The cause of death associated with the children has been identified as malnutrition and other diseases related to it. The World Health Organisation (WHO) says that over 600 children have died due to malnutrition in the desert area. It notes that malnutrition is estimated to be related to more than a third of child deaths. This is because nutritious food is unavailable for most people, especially due to rising food prices, which is a common cause of the disease.
In addition poor feeding practices, along with other problems such as the provision of wrong food to children and inadequate breast feeding practices also increase incidences of malnutrition especially in children of a very young age.