Lok Sabha Question No. 3021 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-08-06
Subject: Poshan Yoddha
Ministry: WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: Pradeep Kumar Singh, Ranjanben Dhananjay Bhatt, Balak Nath, Sumedhanand Saraswati, Ashok Kumar Rawat

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.3021 TO BE ANSWERED ON 06.08.2021

## POSHAN YODDHA

## 3021.  SHRI PRADEEP KUMAR SINGH:

SHRIMATI RANJANBEN DHANANJAY BHATT:

SHRI BALAK NATH:

SHRI SUMEDHANAND SARASWATI:

SHRI ASHOK KUMAR RAWAT:

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

- (a)     whether the problems like malnutrition are increasing across the country including Bihar and Rajasthan due to the poor purchasing power and lack of nutritious food on account of prevailing poverty conditions, if so, the details thereof, State/UTwise including Rajasthan and Bihar;
- (b)      the percentage of women and children suffering from malnourishment across the country during the last three years, State/UT-wise;
- (c)      the  steps  taken  by  the  Government  to  overcome  the  under  nutrition  and malnutrition  during  the  last  two  decades  along  with  the  details  of  the  schemes and programmes being launched by the Government in this regard; and
- (d)      whether  the  Government  proposes  to  make  nutrition  programme  a  public movement  by  2022  by  declaring  Anganwadi  workers,  ASHA  workers,  ANM, Primary Healthcare workers as Poshan Yoddha, if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

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

(a) &  (b) Malnutrition  in  the  country  is  assessed  periodically  by  specialised  National Family Health Survey, (NFHS) being conducted by Ministry of Health & Family Welfare. NFHS - 4 and 5 were conducted during 2015-16 and 2019-20 respectively. However, the  recently  released  report  of  NFHS-5  (2019-20)  is  available  for  22  States/UTs. Further, the Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey (CNNS) was also conducted by Ministry of Health & Family Welfare during the year 2016-18. State/UT wise details of stunted, wasted and underweight children under 5 years as per NFHS-4, NFHS-5 and CNNS are at Annexure I which includes states of Bihar and Rajasthan .

Prevalence of undernutrition among women is 22.9% which is an improvement from the levels  of  35.5%  reported  in  NFHS-3  conducted  in  2005-06. State/UT  wise  details  of underweight  among  women  aged  15-49  years,  as  per  NFHS-4  and  NFHS-5  are at Annexure II which includes states of Bihar and Rajasthan.

(c)        Government of India implements the Anganwadi Services Scheme, Scheme for Adolescent  Girls,  POSHAN  Abhiyaan  and  Pradhan  Mantri  Matru  Vandana  Yojana under the Umbrella Integrated Child Development Services Scheme (ICDS) as targeted interventions  to  improve  nutritional  status  of  Children,  Adolescent Girls  and  Pregnant Women and Lactating Mothers throughout the country.

In order to check increasing malnutrition among children and women, Government of India  has  focussed  on  building  convergence  of  all  Nutrition  related  Schemes  on  the target population under POSHAN Abhiyaan.

Recently,  Government  has  also  taken  measures  to strengthen  nutritional  content, delivery, outreach and outcomes with focus on developing practices that nurture health, wellness  and  immunity  to  disease  and  malnutrition.  Steps  have  also  been  taken  to improve  nutritional  quality  and  testing,  strengthen  delivery  and  leverage  technology under the 'Poshan Tracker', a robust ICT enabled platform, to improve governance with regard  to  real  time  monitoring  of  provisioning  of  supplementary  nutrition for  prompt supervisions and management of services.

Also,  Guidelines  on  Quality  Assurance,  Roles  and  Responsibilities  of  Duty  Holders, procedure for procurement, for transparency, efficiency and accountability in delivery of Supplementary Nutrition have been streamlined. Government has advised States/UTs to ensure that the quality of supplementary nutrition conforms to prescribed standards laid  down  under  the  Food  Safety  and  Standards  Act,  2006  and  regulations  made thereunder.  States/UTs  have  also  been  advised  to  promote use  of  AYUSH  systems for prevention of malnutrition and related diseases. A programme to support development  of  Poshan  Vatikas  at  Anganwadi  centres  to  meet  dietary  diversity  gap leveraging  traditional  knowledge  in  nutritional  practices  has  also  been  taken  up. Mission Poshan 2.0, an integrated nutrition support programme, has been announced in Budget 2021-22.

(d)         POSHAN Abhiyaan seeks to convert the agenda of improving nutrition into a Jan  Andolan  or  People's  Movement  involving  Panchayati  Raj  Institutions/village organizations,  etc.  Jan  Andolan  aims  to  address  the  issue  of  malnutrition  through behaviour change by adopting a convergent approach through 18 partnering Ministries/Departments. The Abhiyan focuses on capacity building through training and has provision of incentives and awards for AWWs/AWHs.

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## Annexure I

State/UT wise details of malnourished children as per National Family Health

## Survey (NFHS) and Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey (CNNS)

| S. No.   | Name of Sta te/UT          | Stunting          | Stunting           | Stunting        | Underweight       | Underweight        | Underweight    | Wasting           | Wasting            | Wasting         |
|----------|----------------------------|-------------------|--------------------|-----------------|-------------------|--------------------|----------------|-------------------|--------------------|-----------------|
| S. No.   | Name of Sta te/UT          | NHFS 4 (2015-1 6) | NHFS 5* (2015-16 ) | CNNS (2016-1 8) | NHFS 4 (2015-1 6) | NHFS 5* (2019-2 0) | CNNS (2016-18) | NHFS 4 (2015-1 6) | NHFS 5* (2015-16 ) | CNNS (2016-1 8) |
| 1        | Andaman & Nic obar Islands | 23.3              | 22.5               | -               | 21.6              | 16                 | -              | 18.9              | 23.7               | -               |
| 2        | Andhra Prades h            | 31.4              | 31.2               | 31.5            | 31.9              | 16.1               | 33.5           | 17.2              | 29.6               | 17.1            |
| 3        | Arunachal Prad esh         | 29.4              | -                  | 28              | 19.4              | -                  | 16             | 17.3              | -                  | 7               |
| 4        | Assam                      | 36.4              | 35.3               | 32.4            | 29.8              | 21.7               | 29.4           | 17                | 32.8               | 19.4            |
| 5        | Bihar                      | 48.3              | 42.9               | 42              | 43.9              | 22.9               | 38.7           | 20.8              | 41                 | 14.5            |
| 6        | Chandigarh                 | 28.7              | -                  | -               | 24.5              | -                  | -              | 10.9              | -                  | -               |
| 7        | Chhattisgarh               | 37.6              | -                  | 35.4            | 37.7              | -                  | 40             | 23.1              | -                  | 19.3            |
| 8        | Dadra & Nagar Haveli       | 41.7              | 39.4               | -               | 38.9              | 21.6               | -              | 27.6              | 38.7               | -               |
| 8        | Daman & Diu                | 23.4              | -                  | -               | 26.7              | -                  | -              | 24.1              | -                  | -               |
| 9        | Delhi                      | 31.9              | -                  | 28.8            | 27                | -                  | 28.1           | 15.9              | -                  | 14.8            |
| 10       | Goa                        | 20.1              | 25.8               | 19.6            | 23.8              | 19.1               | 20.3           | 21.9              | 24                 | 15.8            |
| 11       | Gujarat                    | 38.5              | 39                 | 39.1            | 39.3              | 25.1               | 34.2           | 26.4              | 39.7               | 17              |
| 12       | Haryana                    | 34                | -                  | 34.9            | 29.4              | -                  | 28.8           | 21.2              | -                  | 11.7            |
| 13       | Himachal Prad esh          | 26.3              | 30.8               | 28.4            | 21.2              | 17.4               | 22.6           | 13.7              | 25.5               | 11.0            |
| 14       | Jammu & Kash mir           | 27.4              | 26.9               | 15.5            | 16.6              | 19                 | 13.0           | 12.1              | 21                 | 15.0            |
| 15       | Jharkhand                  | 45.3              | -                  | 36.2            | 47.8              | -                  | 42.9           | 29                | -                  | 29.1            |
| 16       | Karnataka                  | 36.2              | 35.4               | 32.5            | 35.2              | 19.5               | 32             | 26.1              | 32.9               | 19              |
| 17       | Kerala                     | 19.7              | 23.4               | 20.5            | 16.1              | 15.8               | 18.7           | 15.7              | 19.7               | 12.6            |
| 18       | Lakshadweep                | 26.8              | 30.5               | -               | 23.6              | 17.5               | -              | 13.7              | 20.4               | -               |
| 19       | Ladakh                     | -                 | 32                 | -               | -                 | 17.4               | -              | -                 | 25.8               | -               |
| 20       | Madhya Prades h            | 42                | -                  | 39.5            | 42.8              | -                  | 38.7           | 25.8              | -                  | 19.6            |
| 21       | Maharashtra                | 34.4              | 35.2               | 34.1            | 36                | 25.6               | 30.9           | 25.6              | 36.1               | 16.9            |
| 22       | Manipur                    | 28.9              | 46.5               | 28.9            | 13.8              | 12.1               | 13             | 6.8               | 26.6               | 6               |
| 23       | Meghalaya                  | 43.8              | 23.4               | 40.4            | 28.9              | 9.9                | 30             | 15.3              | 13.3               | 15              |
| 24       | Mizoram                    | 28                | 28.9               | 27.4            | 12                | 9.8                | 11.3           | 6.1               | 12.7               | 5.8             |
| 25       | Nagaland                   | 28.6              | 32.7               | 26.2            | 16.8              | 19.1               | 16.3           | 11.3              | 26.9               | 12.9            |
| 26       | Orissa                     | 34.1              | -                  | 29.1            | 34.4              | -                  | 29.2           | 20.4              | -                  | 13.9            |
| 27       | Puducherry                 | 24                | -                  | -               | 22.7              | -                  | -              | 23.8              | -                  | -               |
| 28       | Punjab                     | 25.7              | -                  | 24.3            | 21.6              | -                  | 19.7           | 15.6              | -                  | 6.7             |
| 29       | Rajasthan                  | 39.1              | -                  | 36.8            | 36.7              | -                  | 31.5           | 23                | -                  | 14.3            |
| 30       | Sikkim                     | 29.6              | 22.3               | 21.8            | 14.2              | 13.7               | 11.0           | 14.2              | 13.1               | 7.0             |
| 31       | Tamil Nadu                 | 27.1              | -                  | 19.7            | 23.8              | -                  | 23.5           | 19.7              | -                  | 21              |
| 32       | Telangana                  | 28                | 33.1               | 29.3            | 28.4              | 21.7               | 30.8           | 18.1              | 31.8               | 17.9            |
| 33       | Tripura                    | 24.3              | 32.3               | 31.9            | 24.1              | 18.2               | 23.8           | 16.8              | 25.6               | 12.8            |
| 34       | Uttar Pradesh              | 46.3              | -                  | 38.8            | 39.5              | -                  | 36.8           | 17.9              | -                  | 18.5            |
| 35       | Uttarakhand                | 33.5              | -                  | 29.9            | 26.6              | -                  | 18.7           | 19.5              | -                  | 5.9             |
| 36       | West Bengal INDIA          | 32.5 38.4         | 33.8 -             | 25.3 34.7       | 31.6 35.7         | 20.3 -             | 30.9 33.4      | 20.3 21.0         | 32.2 -             | 20.1 17.0       |

## Annexure II

State/UT wise details of Underweight among women aged 15-49

## years as per NFHS-4 and NFHS-5

| S.No.   | State/UT                           | Underweight among Women (15- 49 years)   | Underweight among Women (15- 49 years)   |
|---------|------------------------------------|------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------|
| S.No.   | State/UT                           | NFHS-4                                   | NFHS-5                                   |
| 1       | Andaman & Nicobar Islands          | 13.1                                     | 9.4                                      |
| 2       | Andhra Pradesh                     | 17.6                                     | 14.8                                     |
| 3       | Assam                              | 25.7                                     | 17.6                                     |
| 4       | Bihar                              | 30.4                                     | 25.6                                     |
| 5       | Dadra & Nagar Haveli & Daman & Diu | 23.4                                     | 25.1                                     |
| 6       | Goa                                | 14.7                                     | 13.8                                     |
| 7       | Gujarat                            | 27.2                                     | 25.2                                     |
| 8       | Himachal Pradesh                   | 16.2                                     | 13.9                                     |
| 9       | Jammu & Kashmir                    | 12.2                                     | 5.2                                      |
| 10      | Karnataka                          | 20.7                                     | 17.2                                     |
| 11      | Kerala                             | 9.7                                      | 10.1                                     |
| 12      | Lakshadweep                        | 13.5                                     | 8                                        |
| 13      | Ladakh                             | 10.5                                     | 4.4                                      |
| 14      | Maharashtra                        | 23.5                                     | 20.8                                     |
| 15      | Meghalaya                          | 12.1                                     | 10.8                                     |
| 16      | Manipur                            | 8.8                                      | 7.2                                      |
| 17      | Mizoram                            | 8.4                                      | 5.3                                      |
| 18      | Nagaland                           | 12.3                                     | 11.1                                     |
| 19      | Sikkim                             | 6.4                                      | 5.8                                      |
| 20      | Telangana                          | 22.9                                     | 18.8                                     |
| 21      | Tripura                            | 18.9                                     | 16.2                                     |
| 22      | West Bengal                        | 21.3                                     | 14.8                                     |
| 23      | Arunachal Pradesh                  | 8.5                                      | -                                        |
| 24      | Chandigarh                         | 13.3                                     | -                                        |
| 25      | Chhattisgarh                       | 26.7                                     | -                                        |
| 26      | Delhi                              | 14.9                                     | -                                        |
| 27      | Haryana                            | 15.8                                     | -                                        |
| 28      | Jharkhand                          | 31.5                                     | -                                        |
| 29      | Madhya Pradesh                     | 28.4                                     | -                                        |
| 30      | Orissa                             | 26.5                                     | -                                        |
| 31      | Puducherry                         | 11.2                                     | -                                        |
| 32      | Punjab                             | 11.7                                     | -                                        |
| 33      | Rajasthan                          | 27                                       | -                                        |
| 34      | Tamil Nadu                         | 14.6                                     | -                                        |
| 35 36   | Uttar Pradesh Uttarakhand          | 25.3 18.4                                | - -                                      |