Lok Sabha Question No. 1142 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2019-11-22
Subject: Malnourished Children
Ministry: WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: Rajiv Ranjan (Lalan) Singh, Nalin Kumar Kateel, Rita Bahuguna Joshi, Pratima Mondal, Kanimozhi Karunanidhi, Vinod Kumar Sonkar, Dr. T. Sumathy (a) Thamizhachi Thangapandian, D.K. Suresh

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF WOMEN & CHILD DEVELOPMENT

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1142 TO BE ANSWERED ON 22.11.2019

## MALNOURISHED CHILDREN

1142. SHRI RAJIV RANJAN SINGH ALIAS LALAN SINGH SHRI NALIN KUMAR KATEEL SHRIMATI RITA BAHUGUNA JOSHI SHRIMATI PRATIMA MONDAL SHRIMATI KANIMOZHI KARUNANIDHI SHRI VINOD KUMAR SONKAR DR. T. SUMATHY (A) THAMIZHACHI THANGAPANDIAN SHRI D. K. SURESH

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

- (a) whether according to a recently published report of UNICEF, every third child in the world  and  every  second  child  in  India  is  malnourished  and  if  so,  the  details  of  the measures taken  by  the  Government  to  eradicate  severe  acute  malnutrition  among children, women and adolescent girls in the country:
- (b) whether the guidelines issued by the Government did not yield the desired results in preventing the malnutrition problems, if so, the reasons therefor:
- (c) whether  the  Government  has  taken  any  measures/launched  programmes  to  revise the method of dealing with the malnutrition problems in an effective way to reduce the number of malnourished children, if so, the  response/future vision of the Government in this regard;
- (d) the details of work done under National Nutrition Mission along with the amount of funds allocated and utilised thereunder, State-wise;
- (e) whether  the  Government  has  devised  any  new  initiatives  and  policies  for  the development of Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) in the country: and
- (f) if  so,  the  details thereof along with the performance of the ICDS programme during the last five years?

## ANSWER

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

(a) & (b) As per the report of NFHS-4 conducted in 2015-16, 35.7% children under 5 years of age are underweight and 38.4% are stunted indicating a reduction from the previous NFHS - 3 conducted in 2005-06, which reported 42.5% children under 5 years of age as underweight  and  48%  stunted.  Further,  a s  per  the  report  of  Comprehensive  National Nutrition Survey (CNNS) conducted during 2016-18, prevalence of stunting, wasting and  underweight  among  children  is  34.7%,  17%  and  33.4%  respectively,  which indicates  further  reduction when  compared  to the  levels  reported  by  NFHS-4; and hence an improvement from the previous status.

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 in the country. Children with Severe Acute Malnutrition are treated at the Nutrition Rehabilitation Centres established by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

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.

(c)& (d) Government set up POSHAN Abhiyaan on 18.12.2017 for a three year time frame commencing from 2017-18 with an overall budget of Rs. 9046 Crore. To ensure a holistic approach,  all  36  States/UTs  and  districts  have  been  covered.  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 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  phased  manner, through a life cycle approach, by adopting a synergised and result oriented approach. The Abhiyaan will ensure 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. 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. The State-wise funds allocated and utilized is at Annexure-I .

(e)  &  (f)  Under the revised Anganwadi Services, besides delivering six services under the scheme  to the beneficiaries, the existing provisions have been strengthened; the remuneration payable to the AWW/AWH has been increased and provision of Rs. 12,000/per AWC for construction of toilets in 70,000 Government owned AWC buildings per year and Rs. 10,000/- per AWC for 20,000 AWCs per year for providing drinking water facilities has been made for the FY 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20. Over the past years the number of Anganwadi Centres with Toilet Facilities has significantly increased from 698379 AWCs buildings as on 31.03.2015 to 1014655 AWCs as on 30.06.2019.  Similarly, drinking water facility has increased from 887293 AWCs  as on 31.03.2015 to 1218027 AWCs as on 30.06.2019.  The number of operational projects and AWCs has increased to 7075 and 13.77 lakh respectively as on 30.06.2019.

*****

## Annexure-I

Statement referred to in reply to part (d) of the reply to Lok Sabha Un-Starred Q.No. 1142 for 22.11.2019 raised by SHRI RAJIV RANJAN SINGH

State/UT-wise details of funds released under POSHAN Abhiyaan

(Rs. in lakhs)

| Sl. No.   | State/UT          | Fund Released   | Fund Released   | Fund Released   | Utilization during   | Released during   | Utilization during       |
|-----------|-------------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|----------------------|-------------------|--------------------------|
| Sl. No.   | State/UT          | 2017 - 18       | 2018-19         | Total           | 2018-19              | 2019-20           | 2019-20 as on 31.10.2019 |
| 1         | Andhra Pradesh    | 2572.41         | 8604.68         | 11177.09        | 3011.16              | 5582.52           | 4340.34                  |
| 2         | Bihar             | 7063.44         | 15001.67        | 22065.11        | 5380.00              | 10000.00          | 12309.59                 |
| 3         | Chhattisgarh      | 1668.12         | 9629.51         | 11297.63        | 1550.93              | 0.00              | 1341.01                  |
| 4         | Delhi             | 945.95          | 2206.88         | 3152.83         | 164.80               | 0.00              | 958.54                   |
| 5         | Goa               | 238.07          | 197.78          | 435.85          | 0.00                 | 0.00              | 92.58                    |
| 6         | Gujarat           | 3036.66         | 11228.03        | 14264.69        | 2606.06              | 7531.00           | 6444.74                  |
| 7         | Haryana           | 400.97          | 5992.46         | 6393.43         | 310.11               | 0.00              | 1086.18                  |
| 8         | Jharkhand         | 2429.59         | 5110.45         | 7540.04         | 305.19               | 0.00              | 746.14                   |
| 9         | Karnataka         | 3351.05         | 9870.89         | 13221.94        | 0.00                 | 0.00              | 97.62                    |
| 10        | Kerala            | 1273.37         | 6491.91         | 7765.28         | 109.64               | 0.00              | 570.19                   |
| 11        | Madhya Pradesh    | 4067.20         | 15894.17        | 19961.37        | 5516.17              | 17883.00          | 4628.88                  |
| 12        | Maharashtra       | 2572.31         | 20989.28        | 23561.59        | 11557.19             | 33061.47          | 11482.54                 |
| 13        | Odisha            | 4600.46         | 10571.65        | 15172.11        | 0.00                 | 0.00              | 0.00                     |
| 14        | Puducherry        | 39.24           | 393.70          | 432.94          | 104.33               | 497.00            | 116.37                   |
| 15        | Punjab            | 819.51          | 6090.33         | 6909.84         | 30.88                | 0.00              | 0.00                     |
| 16        | Rajasthan         | 4216.26         | 9680.99         | 13897.25        | 3144.67              | 0.00              | 2200.78                  |
| 17        | Tamil Nadu        | 1340.51         | 12210.93        | 13551.44        | 2692.37              | 0.00              | 1904.02                  |
| 18        | Telangana         | 1736.94         | 8595.70         | 10332.64        | 2897.82              | 7003.00           | 1650.97                  |
| 19        | Uttar Pradesh     | 8440.60         | 29582.87        | 38023.47        | 5986.37              | 0.00              | 8157.38                  |
| 20        | West Bengal       | 5545.27         | 19294.11        | 24839.38        | 0.00                 | 0.00              | 0.00                     |
| 21        | Arunachal Pradesh | 52.93           | 2663.35         | 2716.28         | 368.30               | 0.00              | 0.00                     |
| 22        | Assam             | 2298.27         | 15492.36        | 17790.63        | 785.58               | 14171.00          | 6569.98                  |
| 23        | Himachal Pradesh  | 1557.26         | 4153.15         | 5710.41         | 1288.88              | 2480.00           | 3075.46                  |
| 24        | Jammu & Kashmir   | 388.59          | 8343.52         | 8732.11         | 1417.25              | 0.00              | 9.89                     |
| 25        | Manipur           | 340.46          | 3865.37         | 4205.83         | 1233.24              | 0.00              | 0.00                     |
| 26        | Meghalaya         | 462.98          | 1713.27         | 2176.25         | 1536.18              | 1706.80           | 342.19                   |
| 27        | Mizoram           | 119.38          | 957.65          | 1077.03         | 1077.03              | 902.00            | 211.77                   |
| 28        | Nagaland          | 163.74          | 1251.97         | 1415.71         | 811.07               | 1445.17           | 567.33                   |
| 29        | Sikkim            | 98.59           | 328.47          | 427.06          | 157.16               | 544.00            | 180.98                   |
| 30        | Tripura           | 277.91          | 3695.72         | 3973.63         | 606.01               | 0.00              | 204.74                   |
| 31        | Uttarakhand       | 1866.25         | 4301.57         | 6167.82         | 1030.43              | 3696.00           | 2383.43                  |
|           | Total             | 63984.29        | 254404.39       | 318388.68       | 55678.82             | 106502.96         | 71673.64                 |

| Sl. No.   | UT without Legislature   | Funds Released   | Funds Released   | Funds Released   | Utilization during 2018-19   | Funds Released during 2019-20   | Utilization during 2019- 20 as on 31.10.2019   |
|-----------|--------------------------|------------------|------------------|------------------|------------------------------|---------------------------------|------------------------------------------------|
| Sl. No.   | UT without Legislature   | 2017 - 18        | 2018-19          | Total            |                              |                                 |                                                |
| 1         | Andaman & Nicobar        | 100.22           | 416.89           | 517.11           | 109.27                       | 307.62                          | 63.77                                          |
| 2         | Chandigarh               | 158.88           | 306.82           | 465.70           | 133.21                       | 526.97                          | 95.67                                          |
| 3         | Dadra & Nagar Haveli     | 108.83           | 129.32           | 238.15           | 123.98                       | 431.16                          | 114.16                                         |
| 4         | Daman & Diu              | 42.06            | 197.66           | 239.72           | 65.68                        | 446.98                          | 131.98                                         |
| 5         | Lakshadweep              | 60.00            | 138.90           | 198.90           | 72.15                        | 126.75                          | 126.75                                         |
|           | TOTAL                    | 469.99           | 1189.59          | 1659.58          | 504.29                       | 1839.48                         | 532.33                                         |

-  POSHAN Abhiyaan approved on 18.12.2017