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Lankan malnutrition indicators are among highest in region: UNICEF

The poorest, most vulnerable girls and boys are paying the heaviest price as Sri Lanka continues to experience its worst economic downturn, UNICEF has warned. Staple meals are no longer accessible, severe malnutrition is among the highest in the region.

Newly emerging food insecurity has exacerbated the socioeconomic problems already affecting the island country, according to UNICEF’s Regional Director for South Asia, George Laryea-Adjei. ‘Families are skipping regular meals as staple foods become unaffordable. Children are going to bed hungry, unsure of where their next meal will come from’, he said in a statement on Friday.

Laryea-Adjei noted that additional actions need to be made to assist Sri Lankan children impacted by the economic crisis, ‘children need to be placed squarely at the heart of the solution as the country works to resolve the crisis’. He said that severe malnutrition in crisis-torn Sri Lanka was already among the highest in the area, and that widespread food insecurity would only serve to further encourage poverty, sickness, and mortality in the region.

‘As the economic crisis continues to rattle Sri Lanka, it is the poorest, most vulnerable girls and boys who are paying the steepest price’, UNICEF tweeted on Friday.

According to UN estimates, half of the children in Sri Lanka already need emergency aid. A sector hit hard by the economic crisis is education, which has suffered lower student enrolment, a resource shortage, and commutes rendered hazardous by ageing infrastructure. ‘Reports are already emerging of an increase in abuse, exploitation and violence against children due to the mounting economic pressure’, Laryea-Adjei said.

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