They have urged the authorities to stabilise the gains achieved in nutrition status of the vulnerable in Sri Lanka, especially of children less than 5 years of age, The Island newspaper reported.

The associations say that children under 5 are considered as the sentinel or observation group of the whole of the population nutrition status. Any change in the diet is quickly reflected among children especially of this age.

They said that malnutrition will rise in Sri Lanka in the face of increased poverty and high food prices brought about by the current economic crisis.

Currently the levels of poverty have risen bringing it to 14 per cent from a previous value of 6.7 per cent. This amounts to 700,000 families out of 4.9 million, which are “nutritionally at risk”.

There should be a systematic programme of intervention especially targeting these households and their vulnerable family members without piecemeal approaches on the part of the state and non-state actors, the groups said.