Kathmandu, May 15: Members of the House of Representatives and National Assembly have stressed the need for increasing the amount of monthly child nutrition allowance in the upcoming budget.
The government has been providing Rs. 532 per month to each child of the poor groups of 25 districts currently. Speaking at a discussion programme on Child Grant and Child Nutrition Allowance organized by Social Protection Civil Society Network (SPCSN), the lawmakers said that the government should increase the monthly allowance on it. They added that it should be expanded across the country.
According to Gauri Pradhan, a former member of the National Human Rights Commission and the then Chairman of the Child Welfare Committee, child malnutrition has come down with the introduction of child nutrition allowance programme.
Presenting a paper, Thakur Dhakal, a child rights activist, said that 1.1 million children under the age of 5 have been benefited from the 0.19 percent of the national budget allocated for the child nutrition allowance.
