Lok Sabha Question No. 3319 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2020-03-13
Subject: Child Wasting Ratio
Ministry: WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: Kanimozhi Karunanidhi

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF WOMEN & CHILD DEVELOPMENT

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3319 TO BE ANSWERED ON 13.03.2020

## CHILD WASTING RATIO

## 3319.  SHRIMATI KANIMOZHI KARUNANIDHI:

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

- (a) whether the Government has taken note of the high prevalence rate of child wasting and child stunting across the country and if so, the details thereof;
- (b) the details of measures being taken by the Government in this regard; and
- (c) whether any study has been conducted to assess the status of the implementation of the schemes to ensure provision of proper nutrition to the children across the country is being implemented effectively, if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

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

(a)    As per the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) - 4 (2015-16) conducted by Ministry of Health  and  Family  Welfare,  38.4%  children  under  5  years  of  age  are  stunted  and  21%  are wasted.However, as per the Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey (CNNS) (2016-18), the prevalence of stunting among children is 34.7% and wasting 17.3%,which is an improvement from the levels reported in NFHS-4.

(b)  The Government has accorded high priority to the issue of malnutrition and is implementing several  schemes like Anganwadi Services, Scheme for Adolescent Girls and Pradhan Mantri Matru  Vandana  Yojna  (PMMVY)  under  the  Umbrella  Integrated  Child  Development  Services (ICDS) Scheme as direct targeted interventions to address the problem of malnutrition among children in the country.

Further, the 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 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 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 schemes/ 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, the 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.

- (c) The Schemes implemented by the Ministry for improvement in the nutritional status of children have in-built monitoring systems as under:
- (i) The Anganwadi Services Scheme has an in-built monitoring system since its inception to track the physical progress of the scheme in respect of various input process,output and impact indicators through a standardized  Management  Information  System (MIS).Further, in order to strengthen the performance of Anganwadi  Services, Government  has  introduced  monitoring  and  review  mechanism  at  different  levels (National/ State/ District/ Block and Anganwadi level).

Further,  ICDS-Common Application  Software  has  been  rolled  out  to  capture  data  on weight  and  height  of  children,  opening  of  Anganwadi  Centres,  distribution  of  Take Home Ration, attendance of children for pre-school education at Anganwadi Centres. This data/information is available for monitoring on web-based ICDS-CAS dashboard to the supervisory staff at Block, District, State and National level.

- (ii)  Under the Scheme for Adolescent Girls, monitoring committees have been setup at all levels (National, State, District, Block and Village level) to take stock of the progress of the scheme  as  also  to strengthen  the  coordination  and  convergence  between concerned departments.
- (iii) The  Pradhan  Mantri  Matru  Vandana  Yojana  (PMMVY)  is  implemented  through  webbased  Management  and  Information  (MIS)  Software,  viz.,  Pradhan  Mantri  Matru Vandana  Yojana-Common  Application  Software  (PMMVY-CAS)  which  is  used  as  an effective tool for regular monitoring. Further, in order to expedite the implementation of the Scheme,  regional  review meeting-cum-workshops  as  well as national level workshops  are  conducted  regularly  for  highest  level  monitoring.  Monitoring  is  also undertaken  through  video  conferences  with  all  the  States/UTs  so  as  to  ensure maximum participation by all officials at the State/UT level.
- (iv) Regular reviews and meetings are conducted at National and State/UTs level to monitor the  progress  of  implementation  of  POSHAN Abhiyaan. Field level checks are carried out by the Ministry &States/UTs. Further, there is a National Nutrition Resource Centre (NNRC) at National level and State Nutrition Resource Centre (SNRC) at State level to closely monitor the implementation of POSHAN Abhiyaan.

Additionally,  National  Council  under  the  Chairmanship  of  Vice  Chairman,  NITI  Aayog and  the  Executive  Committee  also  monitor  the  progress  of  POSHAN  Abhiyaan regularly.

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