India, Feb. 27 -- The Maharashtra government on Thursday informed the legislative council that 34,325 children below 5 years of age died in Maharashtra in the past two and a half years, due to premature birth, low birth weight, sepsis, pneumonia, birth asphyxia and other causes. The government, however, succeeded in reducing malnutrition among children, with the number of children with severe acute malnutrition dropping from 80,248 to 14,660 in the past 2.5 years, women and child development minister Aditi Tatkare informed the council via a written reply.

The reply was submitted following questions raised by NCP MLC Sanjay Khodke, Congress MLC Satej Patil and others. Khodke cited a January 2026 report by the nonprofit Samarthan which cla...