'Zero-Food Children' Report Attempt To Sensationalise Fake News: Centre

Zero-food children is a term used to refer to children between six and 23 months old who did not consume any milk, formula or food in the last 24 hours.

The Union Ministry of Women and Child Development Tuesday denounced a recently published article on "zero-food children" in India, and labelled it as a deliberate and malicious attempt to sensationalise fake news.

In a statement, the ministry said the article lacked primary research and made misleading assertions.

The article referred to was published recently in the peer-reviewed journal JAMA Network Open. The study claimed the prevalence of "zero-food children" in India was at 19.3 per cent and drew attention to extreme food deprivation among children.