Lok Sabha Question No. 1027 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2019-11-22
Subject: UNICEF Report on Stunted Children
Ministry: HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE
Asked by: Sukanta Majumdar, Bhola Singh, Vinod Kumar Sonkar, Manne Srinivas Reddy, Raja Amareshwara Naik

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE

LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1027 TO BE ANSWERED ON 22 ND NOVEMBER, 2019

## UNICEF REPORT ON STU NTED CHILDREN

## 1027. DR. SUKANTA MAJUMDAR:

SHRI MANNE SRINIVAS REDDY:

SHRI VINOD KUMAR SONKAR:

SHRI RAJA AMARESHWARA NAIK:

SHRI BHOLA SINGH:

Will the Minister of HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government is aware of the findings of the UNICEF's report titled 'State of the World's Children 2019: Children, food and nutrition', if so, the details thereof;
- (b) whether the report suggest that 87 per cent of children in India are either stunted or wasted or underweight or combination of these, if so, the details thereof and the justification of the Government claims about the reduction in stunting and underweight children by 3.7 per cent and 2.3 per cent respectively during 2016 and 2018;
- (c) whether the schemes and programmes implemented by the Government to curb the above havehad little impact on achieving its desired objectives, if so, the details thereof and the proposed steps likely to be taken to achieve its objectives;
- (d) whether the Government has noted that nearly 80 per cent children (6 - 23 months) in India do not  rec eive  minimum dietary  diversity  and  there  is  a  decline  in ca orie  share  of  fruits  and vegetables and a substantial lack of diet based on milk and milk products in India, if so, the reaction of the Government thereto; and
- (e) the steps taken/being taken to address the above issues by the Government?

## ANSWER THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE

(SHRI ASHWINI KUMAR CHOUBEY)

- (a): Yes. The Government is aware of the findings of UNICEF's report titled 'State of the World's Children 2019: Children, food and nutrition'.

The salient findings of this report are as under:

- At least 1 in 3 children under 5 years of age is undernourished or overweight and 1 in 2 suffers from hidden hunger, undermining the capacity of millions of children to gro develop to their full potential.
- The  triple  burden  of  malnutrition -undernutrition,  hidden  hunger  and  ov erweight -threatens the survival, growth and development of children, young people, economies nations.
- The triple burden of malnutrition is driven by the  poor quality of children's diets: 2 in 3 children are

not fed the minimum recommended.

- Globaliz ation,  urbanization,  inequities,  humanitarian  crises  and  climate  shocks driving unprecedented negative changes in the nutrition situation of children arou world.
- Improving children's nutrition requires food systems to deliver nutritious, safe, af fordable and sustainable diets for all children.

(b) & (c): No. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), Government of India with  support  from  UNICEF  has  conducted  the  first  ever  Comprehensive  National  Nutritio Survey  (CNNS),  during  year  2016 to  2018  in  30  States.  The  CNNS  results  highlight improvements  by  reduction  in  stunting  (height  for  age),  wasting  (weight  for  height underweight (weight for age) in children below five years of age from 38.4% to 34.7%, 21. 17.3% and 35.7% to 33.4% respectively in comparison to NFHS - 4.

The  Government  of  India  has  also  launched  POSHAN  (Prime  Minister  Overarching Scheme  for  Holistic  Nourishment)  Abhiyaan,  to  address  malnutrition  in  India  thro convergence, behaviour change, IEC advocacy, training and capacity building, use of technology i.e. Common Application Software (CAS), innovations and demand generation.

(d ) &( e) : The Government is aware of the low percentage of minimum dietary diversity i children (6 - 23 months), and has started POSHAN Abhiyaan which focuses on educating families on  the  need  for  nutrition  and  motivating  them  on  adopting  these  into  their  behaviour promotion of locally available nutritious food through various community based events (CB exhibitions, rallies, works hops and meetings is one of the strategy under the POSHAN Abhiyaan.

The  Government  has  also  initiated  various  other  advocacy  and  awareness  campaign including 'Eat Right India' Campaign, which is built on the two broad pillars of 'Eat Healthy' and 'Eat Safe'.

Village  Health  Sanitation  and  Nutrition  Day  (VHSND)  platform  is  being  used  fo creating community awareness on importance of balanced and healthy diet, nd bringing desired changes  in  the  dietary  practices  through  group  counselling  sessions. The Government  is  also promoting  use  of  fortified  wheat  flour,  fortified  rice,  fortified  oil  and  double  forti supplementary nutrition under ICDS.

The  Government  of  India  is  implementing  Anganwadi  Services  a  centrally  sponsored flagship programme o f the Government to improve the nutritional and health status of childre the  age -group  0 - 6  years  and  to  reduce  the  incidence  of  malnutrition.  The  scheme  provides package  of  six  services  i.e.  Supplementary  Nutrition,  Pre  School  Non - formal  Education, N utrition and Health Education, Immunisation, Health checkups and referral services.

Government  of  India  is  also  implementing  various  health  and  nutrition  intervent under National Health Mission (NHM) which are as follows:

- Promotion of appropriate Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) practices that include early  initiation  of  breastfeeding  and  exclusive  breastfeeding  till  6  months  of supplementary nutrition thereafter with continued breastfeeding upto to 2 years o and beyond.
- ' MAA -Mothers'  Absolute  Affection'  programme to  improve  breastfeeding  coverage and appropriate breastfeeding practices.
- Micro- supplementation programmes for tackling micronutrient deficiency vulnerable age groups such as pregnant women, under - five children and adolescents.

among

- Vitamin A supplementation (VAS) for children till the age of 5 years.
- 'Anemia Mukt Bharat (AMB)' for supplementation and treatment of anaemia in children, adolescents,  pregnant  and  lactating  women,  and  women  of  reproductive  age  group  i programme  mode  through  life  cycle  approach.  This  involves,  bi - weekly  IFA  syrup supplementation  to  children  6 -59  months,  weekly  IFA  tablet  supplementation  to children 5 -10 years and adolescents 10 -19 years, and IFA tablets to pregnant and lactating wom en.
- National De -worming Day as a fixed day strategy to administer Albendazole tablets to the children in the age group of 1 - 19 years through the platform of AWCs and Schools for good nutritional outcomes and prevention of anemia.
- Prevention  of  childhoo d  illness  such  as  diarrheal  diseases  which  in  turn  prevent childhood malnutrition. Control of childhood diarrhoea is being carried out by condu annual Intensified Diarrhoea Control Fortnight (IDCF) and Defeat Diarrhoea Initiativ
- Under 'Rastriya Bal Swasthya Karyakaram' (RBSK) children of 0 to 18 years of age are screened  for  selected  health  conditions  classified  into  4Ds -Diseases,  Deficiencies, Defects and Developmental delay including screening for Severe Acute Mal - nutrition and provides free re ferral and treatment facilities for identified children.
- Mother  and  Child  Protection  Card is  the  joint  initiative  of  the  Ministry  of  Health Family welfare and the Ministry of Woman and Child Development which addresses the nutrition concerns in children , pregnant women and lactating mothers.
- Treatment of sick children with Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) at special units c the Nutrition Rehabilitation Centres (NRCs), set up at public health facilities.
- Home  Based  Care  for  Young  Children  (HBYC)  has been  launched  to  extend  the community based care by ASHA workers with focus on improvement in child rearing practices, nutrition counseling and breastfeeding promotion till 15th month of life.

All these programs address one or other aspects related to n utrition and have the potential to improve nutritional outcomes in the country.