Lok Sabha Question No. 81 (STARRED), answered on 2020-02-07
Subject: Poshan Abhiyan
Ministry: WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: Chandra Sekhar Sahu

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF WOMEN & CHILD DEVELOPMENT

## LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 81

TO BE ANSWERED ON 07.02.2020

## POSHAN ABHIYAN

- *81. SHRI CHANDRA SEKHAR SAHU:

Will the Minister of WOMENAND CHILD DEVELOPMENT be pleased to state:

- (a) whether about two thirds of deaths among children in India are attributable to malnutrition;
- (b) if so, the details thereof along with the mechanism adopted by the Government to address the situation more effectively;
- (c) whether the Government has taken up the matter with the States to pay special attention towards effective implementation of the Poshan Abhiyan to reduce the instances of stunting, undernutrition, anaemia and low birth weight in children; and
- (d) if  so,  the  details  thereof  along  with  the  response  of  States  thereto  and  the extent  to  which  the  Government  has  been  able  to  tackle  the  problem  of malnutrition in the country?

## ANSWER

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

(a)to (d): A statement is laid on the table of the House.

## Statement referred to in reply to part (a) to (d) of Lok Sabha Starred Question No.  81  due  for  answer  on  07.02.2020,  raised  by  Shri  Chandra  Sekhar  Sahu regarding Poshan Abhiyan.

- (a) to (d) Malnutrition is not the direct cause of death among children under five years  of  age.  It  can  increase  morbidity  and  mortality  by  reducing  resistance  to infections.  Malnourished children are more vulnerable to any infection than normal children.  The  overall  under  five  mortality  rate  has  reduced  from  74.3  (NFHS-3)  to 49.7 (NFHS-4) deaths per thousand live births.

Malnutrition  is  a  complex  and  multi-dimensional  issue,  affected  by  a  number  of generic factors including poverty, inadequate food consumption due to access and availability,  inequitable food distribution, improper maternal infant and child feeding and care practices, inequity and gender imbalances, poor sanitary and environmental  conditions;  and  restricted  access  to  quality  health,  education  and social care services.

The  Government  has  accorded  high  priority  to  the  issue  of  malnutrition  and  is making serious efforts to eradicate malnutrition. Several schemes with direct as well as  indirect  interventions  are  being  implemented  across  the  country.  Schemes  like Anganwadi  Services,  Scheme  for  Adolescent  Girls  and  Pradhan  Mantri  Matru VandanaYojna (PMMVY) under the Umbrella Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme as direct targeted interventions are being implemented to address the problem of malnutrition among women and children in the country.

Anganwadi Services , aims to improve the nutritional and health status of children in the  age-group  0-6  years,  pregnant  women  &  lactating  mothers  and  reduce  the incidence of mortality, morbidity and malnutrition. Under the Scheme, a package of six  services  is  provided  through  a  network  of  Anganwadi  Centers,  which  include supplementary nutrition, pre-school non-formal education, nutrition & health education,  immunization,  health  check-up  and  referral  services.  National  Food Security Act, promulgated in 2013, has mandated the nutritional entitlement for the beneficiaries of Anganwadi Services as legal entitlement. The scheme is universal and open to all the eligible beneficiaries.

Scheme for Adolescent Girls is  implemented for out-of-school adolescent girls in the age group of 11-14 years for self-development and empowerment of adolescent girls;  improvement  of  nutritional  and  health  status;  to  promote  awareness  about health, hygiene & nutrition; support to out of school Adolescent Girls for successful transition  back  to  formal  schooling  or  bridge  learning/skill  training;  upgrade  their home-based skills and life skills.

The objective  of Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY) is to provide cash incentive to improve health seeking behaviour amongst the Pregnant Women & Lactating Mothers (PW&LM) and to compensate partially the wage loss in terms of cash incentive so that the woman can take adequate rest before and after delivery of the first child.

Government is implementing POSHAN Abhiyaan (earlier known as National Nutrition Mission)  since  18 th December  2017 to  address  the  problem  of  malnutrition  in  the country.  To  ensure  a  holistic  approach,  all  districts  of  37  States/UTs  have  been covered in the Abhiyaan. The goals of POSHAN  Abhiyaan  are  to achieve improvement  in  nutritional  status  of  Children  from  0-6  years,  Adolescent  Girls, Pregnant Women and Lactating Mothers in a time bound manner with fixed targets as under:

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

The  Abhiyaan  aims  to  reduce  malnutrition  in  the  Country  in  a  phased  manner, through  a  life  cycle  approach,  by  adopting  a  synergised  and  result  oriented approach.  The  Abhiyaan  ensures  mechanisms  for  timely  service  delivery  and  a robust  monitoring  as  well  as  intervention  infrastructure.  Target  is to  bring  down stunting of the children in the age group of 0-6 years from 38.4% to 25% by the year 2022.

Meetings  have  been  held  between  Minister  of  Women  &  Child  Development  and Chief Ministers of 16 States during the last eight months to review the progress of POSHAN Abhiyaan, in which apart from the senior officers of Ministry, representatives  of  Ministry  of  Health  &  Family  Welfare  and  NITI  Aayog  also participated. National Council under the Chairmanship of Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog and  the  Executive  Committee  under  the  Chairmanship  of  Secretary,  Ministry  of Women  &  Child  Development  (MWCD)  also  monitors  the  progress  of  POSHAN Abhiyaan. Secretary, MWCD has also reviewed the progress of POSHAN Abhiyaan with  the  Chief  Secretaries  and  Secretaries  of  Women  and  Child  Development of States during visits to the States.

Recently,  a  national  conference  was  organised  on  13 th and  14 th November,  2019 with  State  Secretaries  of  Women  and  Child  Development  for  in-depth  review  of POSHAN Abhiyaan and to other Schemes. Series of Video Conferences have also been organized review and accelerate the progress of POSHAN Abhiyaan. Further, letters are sent regularly to Chief Secretaries and Secretaries of Women and Child Development  of States regarding monitoring and effective implementation of POSHAN Abhiyaan. Ministry pursues regularly with States/UTs to complete all the activities in the States/UTs.

As per the recent report of Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey (CNNS) (201618), the prevalence of underweight, stunting and wasting among children is 33.4%, 34.7% and 17.3% respectively, which indicates a reduction when compared to the levels reported by NFHS-4.

- *******