Lok Sabha Question No. 2560 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2020-03-06
Subject: Malnourishment among Women
Ministry: WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: Umesh G. Jadhav

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF WOMEN & CHILD DEVELOPMENT

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2560

TO BE ANSWERED ON 06.03.2020

## MALNOURISHMENT AMONG WOMEN

## 2560.  DR. UMESH G. JADHAV:

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

- (a) whether the incidence of malnourishment among women and children is higher as compared to men and if so, the details thereof and the reasons therefor;
- (b) whether  the  incidence  of  malnourishment  among  children  is  largely  under reported  in  many  parts  of  the  country  and  if  so,  the  details  thereof  and  the reasons therefor;
- (c) whether the faulty methods employed to diagnose malnutrition has led to poor detection of cases of malnutrition and if so, the details thereof; and
- (d) the  details  of  efforts  made  by  the  Government  to  prevent  malnutrition  among women and children in the country?

## ANSWER

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

(a)  to  (d)    Data  on  nutritional  indicators  is  captured  under  the  National  Family  Health Surveys  conducted  periodically  by  the  Ministry  of  Health  and  Family  Welfare,  with International  Institute  for  Population  Sciences  (IIPS)  being  the  nodal  agency  for conducting the surveys using a standardized methodology.

As  per  the  report  of  National  Family  Health  Survey  (NFHS)  -  4  conducted  by Ministry  of  Health  and  Family Welfare  in  2015-16,  prevalence  of  underweight  among children under 5 years of age is 35.7% and 22.9% among women, whereas among men it is 20.2%.

Under-nutrition is a complex and multi-dimensional issue, affected mainly by a number  of  generic  factors  including  poverty,  inadequate  food  consumption  due  to access  and  availability  issues,  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 implementing several schemes/programmes of different Ministries/Departments through States/UTs to address various aspects related to nutrition. This Ministry is implementing POSHAN Abhiyaan, 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 among children and women in the country.

Government  has  set  up  POSHAN  Abhiyaan  on  18.12.2017.  The  goals  of POSHAN Abhiyaan are to achieve improvement in nutritional status of Children from 06  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 anaemia among young Children(6-59 months)                                 | @3%p.a.  |
|       4 | Reduce the prevalence of anaemia 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 lifecycle 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,  de-worming, 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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