Bankrupt Sri Lanka seeks urgent help to feed children

Ministry for Women and Child Affairs said they were seeking private donations to feed possibly several hundred thousand children wasting due to insufficient food.

Sri Lanka issued an urgent appeal on Monday to tackle rapidly spreading malnutrition among children as its economic crisis leaves nine out of 10 people dependent on state handouts.

The Ministry for Women and Child Affairs said they were seeking private donations to feed possibly several hundred thousand children wasting due to insufficient food.

The bankrupt state, grappling with Sri Lanka's worst economic crisis since independence, was unable to sustain welfare.

"When the Covid pandemic was at its peak, the problem was bad, but now, with the economic crisis, the situation is far worse," secretary Neil Bandara Hapuhinne told reporters in Colombo.

Hapuhinne said they had counted 1,27,000 malnourished children among the 5,70,000 girls and boys below the age of five in mid-2021.

Since then, he estimated the numbers have increased several fold with the full impact of rampant inflation and dire shortages of food and other essentials.

He said the number of people receiving direct state handouts has almost doubled in the past year with over 90 percent of the population now relying on the government for financial help.