Lok Sabha Question No. 663 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-12-09
Subject: Malnutrition among Children and Women
Ministry: WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: P. Ravindhranath

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF WOMEN & CHILD DEVELOPMENT

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 663

TO BE ANSWERED ON 09.12.2022

## MALNUTRITION AMONG CHILDREN AND WOMEN

## 663.   SHRI P. RAVINDHRANATH:

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

- (a) the  details  about  the  total  number  of  Anganwadi  centres  being  set  up  by  the Government under POSHAN Abhiyaan for the last three years with the aim to improve  nutritional  outcomes  for  children  and  pregnant  women  across  the country, State-wise;
- (b) whether the Government has fixed any target to reduce the level of malnutrition among children and women across the country; and
- (c) if  so,  the  details  thereof  and  the  follow  up  action  proposed  or  taken  by  the Government in this regard?

## ANSWER

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

- (a)       Anganwadi Centres are sanctioned under Anganwadi Services Scheme, which is now re-aligned as Mission Saksham  Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0, along with Supplementary Nutrition Programme, Poshan Abhiyan and the Scheme for Adolescent Girls.  The  State/UT  wise  details  of  Anganwadi  Centres  set  up  by  the  Government  to improve nutritional outcomes for children and pregnant women across the country are annexed.
- (b)  &  (c)  Government  has  accorded  high  priority  to  the  issue  of  malnutrition  and  is making serious efforts to address this issue. POSHAN Abhiyaan, a flagship scheme of the  Government  was  launched  in  2018  to  address  the  malaise  of  malnutrition  by adopting a synergised and result oriented approach. To ensure a holistic approach, all districts  of  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 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  efforts  under  the  Supplementary  Nutrition  Programme  under  Anganwadi Services and POSHAN Abhiyaan have been rejuvenated and converged as 'Saksham Anganwadi and POSHAN 2.0' (Mission Poshan 2.0). It seeks to address the challenges of  malnutrition  in  children,  adolescent  girls,  pregnant  women  and  lactating  mothers through a strategic shift in nutrition content and delivery and by creation of a convergent ecosystem  to  develop  and  promote  practices  that  nurture  health,  wellness  and immunity. The Common Core of Poshan 2.0 focuses on Maternal Nutrition, Infant and Young Child Feeding Norms, Treatment of MAM/SAM and Wellness through AYUSH. It rests  on  the  pillars  of  Convergence,  Capacity  Building,  Governance  and  Outreach. Under  Poshan  2.0,  focus  is  on  diet  diversity,  food  fortification,  leveraging  traditional systems of knowledge and popularizing use of millets. Nutrition awareness strategies under  Poshan  2.0  aim  to  develop  sustainable  health  and  well-being  through  regional meal plans to bridge dietary gaps.

Steps  have  been  taken  to  improve  nutritional  quality  and  testing  in  accredited labs, strengthen delivery and leverage technology under the 'Poshan Tracker', a robust ICT  enabled  platform  to  improve  governance  with  regard  to  real-time  monitoring  of provision  of  supplementary  nutrition  for  prompt  supervision  and  management  of services.

Government  has  released  streamlined  guidelines  dated  13.1.2021  for  greater transparency,  accountability  and  quality  in  nutrition  support  programme  and  service delivery.  These  guidelines  emphasize  on  ensuring  the  quality  of  supplementary nutrition, highlights roles and responsibilities of duty holders, IT-enabled data management  and  monitoring,  leveraging  of  traditional  knowledge  through  AYUSH, procurement  and  convergence  for  achieving  good  nutritional  outcomes.  Further,  a programme to support development of Poshan Vatikas at Anganwadi centers to meet dietary  diversity  gap  leveraging  traditional  knowledge  in  nutritional  practices  has  also been taken up.

********

## Annexure

## Total number of Anganwadi Centres Sanctioned and Operational as on 2021-2022

| S. No   |                               | No. of Anganwadi Centres   | No. of Anganwadi Centres   |
|---------|-------------------------------|----------------------------|----------------------------|
| S. No   | State/UT                      | Sanctioned                 | Operational                |
| 1       | Andhra Pradesh                | 55607                      | 55607                      |
| 2       | Arunachal Pradesh             | 6225                       | 6225                       |
| 3       | Assam                         | 62153                      | 61715                      |
| 4       | Bihar                         | 115009                     | 112094                     |
| 5       | Chhattisgarh                  | 52474                      | 51586                      |
| 6       | Goa                           | 1262                       | 1262                       |
| 7       | Gujarat                       | 53029                      | 53029                      |
| 8       | Haryana                       | 25962                      | 25962                      |
| 9       | Himachal Pradesh              | 18925                      | 18925                      |
| 10      | Jharkhand                     | 38432                      | 38432                      |
| 11      | Karnataka                     | 65911                      | 65911                      |
| 12      | Kerala                        | 33318                      | 33115                      |
| 13      | Madhya Pradesh                | 97135                      | 97135                      |
| 14      | Maharashtra                   | 110486                     | 109832                     |
| 15      | Manipur                       | 11510                      | 11510                      |
| 16      | Meghalaya                     | 5896                       | 5896                       |
| 17      | Mizoram                       | 2244                       | 2244                       |
| 18      | Nagaland                      | 3980                       | 3980                       |
| 19      | Odisha                        | 74154                      | 73172                      |
| 20      | Punjab                        | 27314                      | 27304                      |
| 21      | Rajasthan                     | 62010                      | 61625                      |
| 22      | Sikkim                        | 1308                       | 1308                       |
| 23      | Tamil Nadu                    | 54439                      | 54439                      |
| 24      | Telangana                     | 35700                      | 35580                      |
| 25      | Tripura                       | 10145                      | 9911                       |
| 26      | Uttar Pradesh                 | 190145                     | 189309                     |
| 27      | Uttarakhand                   | 20067                      | 20048                      |
| 28      | West Bengal                   | 119481                     | 119481                     |
| 29      | A &NIslands                   | 720                        | 719                        |
| 30      | Chandigarh                    | 450                        | 450                        |
| 31      | Dadra &NHaveli and Daman &Diu | 409                        | 405                        |
| 32      | Delhi                         | 10897                      | 10755                      |
| 33      | Jammu &Kashmir                | 30765                      | 28078                      |
| 34      | Ladakh                        | 1173                       | 1140                       |
| 35      | Lakshadweep                   | 107                        | 71                         |
| 36      | Puducherry                    | 855                        | 855                        |
| Total   | Total                         | 1399697                    | 1389110                    |