Lok Sabha Question No. 637 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2016-11-18
Subject: Global Hunger Index
Ministry: WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: SHAILESH (BULO MANDAL) KUMAR, M. B. RAJESH

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF WOMEN & CHILD DEVELOPMENT

## LOK SABHA UN-STARRED QUESTION NO. 637

TO BE ANSWERED ON 18.11.2016

## GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX

637: SHRI SHAILESH KUMAR: SHRI M.B. RAJESH:

Will the Minister of WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT be pleased to state:

(a)  whether  the  Government  has  taken  note  of  the  recently  released  Global  Hunger  Index which shows serious levels of hunger and malnutrition in India and ranked India at 97th in the list of countries;

(b) if so, the long term policy measures and holistic response taken/proposed to be taken by the Government to tackle the issue;

(c) the number of times the Prime Minister's Council on India's nutritional challenges met in the last two years; and

(d) the status of National Nutrition Monitoring Bureau (NNMB) and proposed measures to strengthen it?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT (SHRIMATI MANEKA SANJAY GANDHI)

(a) Government is aware of recently released Global Hunger Index prepared by the IFPRI in 2016. India has been ranked 97th among the 118 countries surveyed in 2016 Global Hunger Index (GHI).

(b)  Malnutrition  is  complex,  multi-dimensional  and  inter-generational  in  nature,  needing convergence  of  interventions,  coordination  and  concerted  action  from  various  sectors.  The causes  are  inadequate  access  to  food,  health  services,  safe  drinking  water,  sanitation  and environmental  conditions,  educational  levels,  income  and  socio-cultural  factors  like  early marriage,  etc.    Situation  is  further  compounded  by  ignorance  about  nutritional  needs  of infants and young children and repeated infections.

The Government has accorded high priority to the issue of malnutrition and is implementing several schemes/programmes of different Ministries/Departments through State Governments/UT Administrations.

This  Ministry  is  implementing  Integrated  Child  Development  Services  (ICDS)  Scheme, Scheme for Adolescent Girls and Maternity Benefit Programme as direct targeted interventions to address the problem of malnutrition among children.

Besides, Food and Nutrition Board (FNB) of the Ministry of Women and Child Development with its 43 field units in India is engaged in creating awareness in nutrition in collaboration with State Government / institutions through exhibitions; advertisement in audio-visual and print medium; lectures promoting the consumption of balanced diets and inclusion of fruits and vegetables in the daily diets in addition to demonstrations of low cost nutritious recipes using locally available foods; training of field functionaries and training in food preservation for grassroots level workers; celebration of nutrition related events, etc.

Under  National  Health  Mission,  Ministry  of  Health  and  Family  Welfare  has  undertaken various measures to address issue of malnutrition which include:

- i. Early initiation  and  exclusive  breastfeeding  for  first  six  months  and  appropriate Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) practices are  promoted in convergence with  Ministry  of  Women  and  Child  Development.  Village  Health  and  Nutrition Days (VHNDs) are observed for provision of maternal and child health services and creating awareness on maternal and child care including health and nutrition education.  The  recently  launched  'MAA  Campaign',  has  been  designed  to promote and support breastfeeding and complementary feeding through building capacities  of  health  workers  on  lactation  management  at  both  community  and facility level and by creating awareness through 360 degree IEC campaign.
- ii. Nutrition  Rehabilitation  Centres  have  been  established  at  health  facilities  to manage severe acute malnutrition in children below five years.
- iii. Some other important interventions are Iron and folic acid (IFA) supplementation for  the  prevention  of  anaemia  among  the  vulnerable  age  groups,  Vitamin-A Supplementation for children in the age group of 6-59 months, annual deworming on National Deworming Day (NDD), home visits by ASHAs to promote use of ORS and Zinc for management of diarrhoea in children.

All these schemes have potential to address one or other aspect related to Nutrition including nutrition of children.

- (c)   The Prime Minister's National Council on India's Nutrition challenges has been set up as an apex body for policy review and directions. The first meeting of Prime Minister's National Council for India's Nutrition Challenges was held on 24 th   November 2010. No meeting on Prime Minister's Council on India's nutritional challenges was held in the last two years.

(d) The National Nutrition Monitoring Bureau was initiated in the year 1975 under the aegis of  Indian  Council  of  Medical  Research  (ICMR),  Ministry  of  Health  &  Family  Welfare (MoHFW),  with  the  objectives  of  assessing  the  nutritional  status  of  different  population groups through diet surveys and anthropometry. Since inception the bureau had carried out four rounds of survey in rural areas of the country, at an interval of 10 years and 3 rounds of survey in tribal population at an interval of 10 years, and lately an urban survey was carried out  in  16  States.  As  the  NNMB  has  been  in  operation  on  a  project  mode  for  the  last  four decades, the Ministry of Finance had advised to terminate the same; accordingly the NNMB was terminated with effect from 31.10.2015.

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