Lok Sabha Question No. 4190 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2019-12-13
Subject: Malnutrition
Ministry: WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: Jaswantsinh Sumanbhai Bhabhor

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF WOMEN & CHILD DEVELOPMENT

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 4190

TO BE ANSWERED ON 13.12.2019

## MALNUTRITION

4190. SHRI JASWANT SINGH BHABHOR:

- (a) whether the Government has conducted any review regarding malnutrition in the children of Gujarat;
- (b) if  so,  the  time  when the said review was conducted along with the outcome thereof; and
- (c) the efforts made by the Government to remove the shortcomings found in the review?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT (SHRIMATI SMRITI ZUBIN IRANI)

(a  &  b):  As  per  the  report  of  the  National  Family  Health  Survey  -  4  conducted  by Ministry  of  Health  and  Family  Welfare  in  2015-16,  in  the  State  of  Gujarat,  39.3% children  under 5 years of age are underweight, 26.4% are wasted and 62.6% are anaemic.  However,  as  per  the  report  of  Comprehensive  National  Nutrition  Survey (CNNS) conducted during 2016-18, prevalence of malnutrition among children has further reduced in the State of Gujarat, i.e., 34.2% children are underweight, 17% are wasted and 38.5% are anaemic.

(c)  The  Government  has  accorded  high  priority  to  the  issue  of  malnutrition  and  is implementing several schemes/programmes  of  different Ministries/Departments through States/UTs to address various aspects related to nutrition. This Ministry is implementing,  Pradhan  Mantri  Matru  Vandana  Yojana,  Anganwadi  Services  and Scheme  for  Adolescent  Girls  under  the  Umbrella  Integrated  Child  Development Services Scheme (ICDS) as direct targeted interventions to address the problem of malnutrition in the country.

Further, the Government has set up POSHAN Abhiyaan on 18.12.2017 for a three year time frame commencing from 2017-18 with a goal to achieve improvement in nutritional status of Children from 0-6 years, Adolescent Girls, Pregnant Women and Lactating Mothers in a time bound manner during the three years with fixed targets as under:

|   S.No. | Objective                                                                                          | Target        |
|---------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------|
|       1 | Prevent and reduce Stunting in children (0- 6 years)                                               | By 6% @2%p.a. |
|       2 | Prevent and reduce under-nutrition (underweight prevalence) in children (0-6 years)                | By 6% @2%p.a. |
|       3 | Reduce the prevalence of anaemia among young Children(6-59 months)                                 | By 9% @3%p.a. |
|       4 | Reduce the prevalence of anaemia among Women and Adolescent Girls in the age group of 15-49 years. | By 9% @3%p.a. |
|       5 | Reduce Low Birth Weight (LBW).                                                                     | By 6% @2%p.a. |

The Abhiyaan aims to reduce malnutrition in the country in a life cycle approach, by adopting a synergised and result oriented approach. The Abhiyaan has mechanisms for timely service delivery and a robust monitoring as well as intervention infrastructure.  The  major  activities  undertaken  under  this  Abhiyaan  are  ensuring convergence  with  various  other  programmes,  Information  Technology  enabled Common Application Software for strengthening service delivery and interventions, Community  Mobilization  and  Awareness  Advocacy  leading  to  Jan  Andolan  to educate the people on nutritional aspects, Capacity Building of Frontline Functionaries, incentivizing States/ UTs for achieving goals, etc.

Further  steps  taken  under  the  National  Health  Mission  (NHM),  a  flagship programme of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, to address malnutrition inter alia include  promotion  of  appropriate  Infant  and  Young  Child  Feeding  (IYCF) practices,  Anaemia  Mukt  Bharat,  Iron  and  Folic  Acid  (IFA)  supplementation,  deworming, promotion of iodized salt, Vitamin-A supplementation, Mission Indradhanush  to  ensure  high  coverage  of  vaccination  in  children,  conducting intensified diarrhoea control fortnights  to  control  childhood  diarrhoea,  management of  sick  severely  malnourished  children  at  Nutrition  Rehabilitation  Centers,  monthly Village Health and Nutrition Days, Home Based Newborn Care (HBNC) and Home Based Young Child Care (HBYC) programmes, Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram, etc.

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