COVID-19 has disrupted routine functioning of the economy and the delivery ofwelfare programs everywhere. Using the case of Karnataka, this paper document thesize of the economic impact on both the state and its households, and the status ofvarious child-specific schemes managed by the Government of Karnataka over 2020-21. With shrinking household consumption and rising deficits of the state, there isneed for operational focus on child development to ensure a healthy future for childrenin India. Using district level data from NFHS 5, this paper proposes a simple and easy to-implement prioritization framework, which can be used to identify geographic focusfor child development schemes in Karnataka, in order to address deficits that matterfor the Global Hunger Index in a time of tightening budget constraints for both thestate and households.