Lok Sabha Question No. 1563 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-02-10
Subject: Study on POSHAN Abhiyaan
Ministry: WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: Vinayak Bhaurao Raut, Omprakash Bhupalsinh alias Pawan Rajenimbalkar

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF WOMEN & CHILD DEVELOPMENT

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1563 TO BE ANSWERED ON 10.02.2023

## STUDY ON POSHAN ABHIYAAN

1563.  SHRI VINAYAK RAUT: SHRI OMPRAKASH BHUPALSINH ALIAS PAWAN RAJENIMBALKAR:

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

- (a) whether  the  Government  has  conducted  any  detailed  State-wise  study regarding performance/impact of POSHAN Abhiyaan;
- (b) if so, the details thereof;
- (c) the  details  of  the  achievement  and  objectives  of  POSHAN  Abhiyaan  in Maharashtra, district-wise;
- (d) the rate of dwarfism, under malnutrition, anaemia in children, adolescent girls and women and low birth-weight in infants in the above State and especially in Osmanabad Parliamentary Constituency during the implementation of POSHAN Abhiyaan;
- (e) the details of the funds released by the Union Government as well as the State Governments and the funds utilized for the purpose; and
- (f) the  number  of  beneficiaries  of  the  above  scheme,  State/UT-wise  including Maharashtra?

## ANSWER

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

(a) & (b) NITI Aayog was mandated to conduct monitoring and evaluation periodically to assess the progress and impact of POSHAN Abhiyaan. In the report Preserving Progress  on  Nutrition  in  India:  Poshan  Abhiyaan  In  Pandemic  Times  NITI  Aayog assessed  the  implementation  of  POSHAN  Abhiyaan  since  its  inception  and  also analysed  the  impact  of  the  COVID-19  pandemic  on  nutrition  and  health  services. Following are the key findings of the report:

-           Poshan Abhiyaan has helped to bring a strong focus on improving nutrition outcomes during the first 1,000 days.
-            Poshan  Abhiyaan  has  enabled  a  nation-wide  jan-andolan  catalysing nutrition related behaviour change at scale for positive impact on feeding and health care practices.
-            Poshan  Abhiyaan  demonstrated  that  the  processes  for  inter-sectoral convergence are effectively operationalized through in place institutional mechanisms at multiple levels.
-           Poshan Abhiyaan showed that technology can be leveraged for real time monitoring of large scale health and nutrition programmes
-           Poshan Abhiyaan supported the resilience of health and nutrition systems during covid-19 pandemic

(c)     POSHAN Abhiyaan was launched on 8 th  March 2018 with an aim to achieve improvement in nutritional status of Children under 6 years, Adolescent Girls, Pregnant Women and Lactating Mothers in a time bound manner by adopting a synergised and result oriented approach with targets as under.

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|   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 anemia among young Children (6-59 months)                                | @3%p.a.  |
|       4 | Reduce the prevalence of anemia 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.  |

Poshan  Abhiyan  is  a  centrally  sponsored  Scheme  and  the  implementation  of  the Scheme lies with the State Government. Poshan Abhiyan has been rolled out in all 36 districts  of  Maharashtra.  Information  Technology  systems  have  been  leveraged  to strengthen and bring about transparency in nutrition delivery support systems. The 'Poshan  Tracker'  application  was  rolled  out  on  1st  March  2021  as  an  important governance tool. Close to 75.48 lakh beneficiaries have been registered on Poshan Tracker from the State of Maharashtra.

Under POSHAN Abhiyaan, for the first time, the Anganwadi workers and Centres were empowered and equipped with mobile devices and growth monitoring devices such as Infantometer,  Stadiometer,  Weighing  Scale.  In  the  state  of  Maharashtra,  120685 Smartphones and 110486 Growth Monitoring Devices have been procured.

Further,  Behaviour  change  and  communication  through  Jan  Andolan  is  a  key component of Poshan Abhiyan. At a national level, Poshan Pakhwada is celebrated every  March  and  the  Rashtriya  Poshan  Maah  is  celebrated  every  September.  In Poshan Pakhwada 2022 and Poshan Maah 2022, close to 75.2 lakh activities and 6.5 crore activities, respectively were conducted across the States of Maharashtra. Key themes included Mahila aur Swasthya, Bacha aur Shiksha, Gender Sensitive Water Management and Healthy food for Mother and Child, particularly in Tribal regions.

(d)   As  per  NFHS-5  (2019-21) prevalence of malnutrition and anaemia in children, adolescent girls and women and low birth-weight in infants in State of Maharashtra and in Osmanabad Parliamentary Constituency are as under:

|   S.No. | Key Indicator                         |   Maharashtra |   Osmanabad District |
|---------|---------------------------------------|---------------|----------------------|
|       1 | Underweight (Children under 5 years ) |          36.1 |                 32.5 |
|       2 | Stunting (Children under 5 years )    |          35.2 |                 37.2 |
|       3 | Wasting (Children under 5 years )     |          25.6 |                 16.1 |

|   4. | Underweight among Women age 15-49 Years ( BMI less than 18.5 Kg /m 2 )   |   20.8 | 19.1   |
|------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|--------|--------|
|    4 | Anaemia ( children age 6- 59 months )                                    |   68.9 | 67.4   |
|    5 | Anaemia ( Women age 15-19 years )                                        |   57.2 | 50.9   |
|    6 | Anaemia ( Women age 15-49 )                                              |   54.2 | 49.1   |
|    7 | Low birth weight ( Infant less than 2.5 Kg)                              |   20   | -      |

(e)  So  far,  total  funds  of  Rs  540295.40  lakhs  have  been  released  by  Central Government  to  all  States/UTs  and  total  funds  of   Rs  357277.66  lakhs  have  been utilised under Poshan Abhiyan.

(f). The State/UT wise details of total number of beneficiaries as per Poshan Tracker including the state of Maharashtra is at Annexure-I

*****

## Annexure I

| State                            |   Total Beneficiaries |   Lactating Mothers |   Pregnant Women | Children 0-6M   |          Children 6M-3Y | Children 3-6Y   |
|----------------------------------|-----------------------|---------------------|------------------|-----------------|-------------------------|-----------------|
| Andhra Pradesh                   |               2800615 |              141149 |           191270 | 115707          |                 1235767 | 1116722         |
| Arunachal Pradesh                |                 56159 |                1288 |             1196 | 1552            |                   23230 | 28893           |
| Assam                            |               3526656 |              157702 |           158502 | 180536          |                 1304945 | 1724971         |
| Bihar                            |              10202702 |              374525 |           607498 | 322539          |                 3805971 | 5092169         |
| Chhattisgarh                     |               2407965 |               67221 |           108062 | 60622           |                 1011153 | 1160907         |
| Goa                              |                 78130 |                5288 |             4712 | 5350            |                   35005 | 27775           |
| Gujarat                          |               3985373 |              277595 |           260837 | 279867          |                 1533777 | 1633297         |
| Haryana                          |               2021235 |              142321 |           120203 | 100653          |                  723013 | 935045          |
| Himachal Pradesh                 |                535329 |               38440 |            38543 | 36752           |                  220188 | 201406          |
| Jharkhand                        |               3644278 |              167789 |           223285 | 155494          |                 1482132 | 1615578         |
| Karnataka                        |               4214837 |              170787 |           285267 | 151304          |                 1847408 | 1760071         |
| Kerala                           |               2430557 |              148539 |           158433 | 142628          |                  870584 | 1110373         |
| Madhya Pradesh                   |               7177687 |              193781 |           409097 | 179411          |                 2908644 | 3486754         |
| Maharashtra                      |               7548976 |              442077 |           424279 | 412977          |                 2729873 | 3539770         |
| Manipur                          |                299721 |               11307 |            11141 | 12186           |                  110622 | 154465          |
| Meghalaya                        |                443163 |               18090 |            11496 | 21759           |                  159585 | 232233          |
| Mizoram                          |                121471 |                4859 |             6478 | 5190            |                   46777 | 58167           |
| Nagaland                         |                 63400 |                 375 |              321 | 437             |                   19589 | 42678           |
| Odisha                           |               4110928 |              197769 |           263172 | 197281          |                 1582269 | 1870437         |
| Punjab                           |               1057467 |               39473 |            46909 | 30992           |                  533503 | 406590          |
| Rajasthan                        |               4810444 |              353972 |           358216 | 252391          |                 2120411 | 1725454         |
| Sikkim                           |                 35803 |                2059 |             1653 | 1985            |                   13155 | 16951           |
| Tamil Nadu                       |               3986744 |              309613 |           325628 | 307703          |                 1776256 | 1267544         |
| Telangana                        |               2197358 |              131602 |           171524 | 127448          |                  946495 | 820289          |
| Tripura                          |                355466 |               16311 |            20681 | 16098           |                  131828 | 170548          |
| Uttar Pradesh                    |              21075550 |             1339956 |          1848508 | 1092196         |                 9052455 | 7742435         |
| Uttarakhand                      |                794036 |               43240 |            49711 | 33339           |                  377624 | 290122          |
| West Bengal                      |               8843562 |              395101 |           578038 | 414517          |                 3336713 | 4119193         |
| Andaman &Nicobar Islands         |                 15863 |                 831 |              842 | 824             |                    8393 | 4973            |
| Dadra &Nagar Haveli - Daman &Diu |                 34628 |                3358 |             4451 | 3362            |                   13783 | 9674            |
| Delhi                            |                730114 |               61420 |            48331 | 61846           |                  345827 | 212690          |
| J&K                              |                813632 |               51781 |            50346 | 33828           |                  327937 | 349740          |
| Ladakh                           |                 19493 |                 885 |              785 | 745             |                    8048 | 9030            |
| Lakshadweep                      |                  6526 |                 408 |              517 | 456             |                    3432 | 1713            |
| Puducherry                       |                 41056 |                2996 |             2877 | 2433            |                   22040 | 10710           |
| UT-Chandigarh                    |                 52444 |                3811 |             3222 | 3864            |                   18674 | 22873           |
| Total                            |             100539368 |             5317719 |          6796031 |                 | 47662724068710642972240 |                 |