Lok Sabha Question No. 2836 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-03-17
Subject: POSHAN Abhiyan 2.0
Ministry: WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: K. Muraleedharan, Behanan Benny, T.N. Prathapan

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2836

TO BE ANSWERED ON 17.03.2023

## ' POSHAN ABHIYAAN 2.0 '

2836   SHRI K. MURALEEDHARAN SHRI BENNY BEHANAN SHRI T.N. PRATHAPAN

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

- a. the details of women and children in the country who are still malnourished, Statewise;
- b. the  steps  taken  by  the  Government  under  POSHAN  Abhiyaan  2.0  to  reduce malnourishment in the country;
- c. whether the government is implementing Anganwadi Services Scheme and if so, the progress made so far; and
- d. the  details  of  measures  taken  by  the  Government  to  ensure  wider  coverage  of  the programme?

## ANSWER

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

- (a) The State/UT wise details of children and women who are malnourished as per the National Family Health Survey 5 is at Annexure I.
- (b) The efforts under the Supplementary Nutrition  Programme  under  Anganwadi Services,  Supplementary  Nutrition  Programme,  revised  Scheme  for  Adolescent  Girls  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  eco-system  to  develop  and promote  practices  that  nurture  health,  wellness  and  immunity.  Steps  have  been  taken  to improve  nutritional  quality  and  testing  in  accredited  labs,  strengthen  delivery  and  leverage technology under the 'Poshan Tracker' for prompt supervision and management of services.

Further,  a  programme  to  support  development  of  Poshan  Vatikas  at  Anganwadi  centers  to meet dietary diversity gap leveraging traditional knowledge in nutritional practices has been emphasised in the Scheme guidelines.

- (c) Anganwadi Services was launched in 1975. It is one of the flagship programmes of the Government of India and represents one of the world ' s largest and unique programmes for early childhood care and development. It is the foremost symbol of the country ' s commitment to its children and nursing mothers, as a response to the challenge of providing pre-school non-

formal  education  on  one  hand  and  breaking  the  cycle  of  malnutrition,  morbidity,  reduced learning capacity and mortality on the other.

The  Anganwadi  Services,  was  re-aligned  under  Mission  Saksham  Anganwadi  and  Poshan 2.0. It is a universal self-selecting Scheme available to all the beneficiaries who enroll at the AWCs across the country. There are 7074 sanctioned projects under Anganwadi Services with 13.9 lakh Anganwadi Centres across the country. 9.94 crore beneficiaries, namely, pregnant women, lactating mothers and children under the age of 6 years, are registered for Anganwadi Services on the ICT application, Poshan Tracker, as on date, out of whom 91% are Aadharverified.

Under Saksham Anganwadi, 2 lakh selected Govt. owned AWCs @ 40,000 AWCs per year would be strengthened, upgraded and rejuvenated for improved nutrition delivery. In the FY 2022-23, close to 40,000 Anganwadi Centres in Aspirational Districts have been identified to be made into Saksham Anganwadis, which will be enhanced with LED screens, Wi-fi, smart learning and teaching material, Poshan Vatikas, Rainwater harvesting structures etc

Funds amounting to Rs.15840.84/- crore have been released in the current Financial Year up to 10.03.2023 for implementing various activities under Anganwadi services.

(d) Poshan Abhiyan is a key component of Mission Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0. A novel  feature  of  POSHAN  Abhiyaan  has  been  its  focus  on  social  and  behavioural  change communication  (SBCC)  thus  paving  way  for  a  mass  movement  to  promote  transformative change,  referred  to  as  Jan  Andolan.  An  important  focus  has  therefore  been  on ' Behaviour Change Communication ' or  BCC  to  address  inadequate  and  inappropriate  infant  and  young child feeding practices, nutrition and care during pregnancy and adolescence.

Under  Poshan  Abhiyaan,  Community  Based  Events  or  CBEs  have  served  as  a  significant strategy in changing nutrition practices. The gatherings serve as a platform for disseminating essential messages and to counsel pregnant and lactating women, and their husbands/mothersin-law on appropriate nutrition and health behaviour. The events are organised every month at Anganwadi  centres  (AWC)  and  primarily  focus  on  promotion  of  maternal  nutrition  (Godh bharai) and/ or initiation of appropriate complementary feeding (Annaprasan). So far, close to 3.7 crore CBEs have been held across the country.

At the national level,  the  Rashtriya  Poshan  Maah is  celebrated in  the  month  of  September across the country, while Poshan Pakhwada is celebrated in the month of March. Themes have included  overall  nutrition,  hygiene,  water  and  sanitation,  anemia  prevention,  importance  of breastfeeding, growth monitoring, role of Poshan Panchayats, AYUSH for wellbeing, Yoga for Health, importance of Poshan Vatikas for cultivation of local vegetables, medicinal plants/herbs and fruits at the community level, Poshan ke Paanch Sutra, cycle rallies, defeat diarrhoea campaigns, Nukkad Natak/Folk Shows, Self Help Group meetings, etc. So far more than 60 crore activities have been conducted across the country as part of the Jan Andolan.

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State/UT wise prevalence of stunting, wasting and underweight among children under five years of age as per National Family Health Survey (NFHS 5)

| State/UT                       |   Children under 5 years who are stunted (%) |   Children under 5 years who are wasted (%) |   Children under 5 years who are underweight (%) |
|--------------------------------|----------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------|
| Andaman &Nicobar Islands       |                                         22.5 |                                        16   |                                             23.7 |
| Andhra Pradesh                 |                                         31.2 |                                        16.1 |                                             29.6 |
| Assam                          |                                         35.3 |                                        21.7 |                                             32.8 |
| Bihar                          |                                         42.9 |                                        22.9 |                                             41   |
| Dadra &Nagar Haveli Daman &Diu |                                         39.4 |                                        21.6 |                                             38.7 |
| Goa                            |                                         25.8 |                                        19.1 |                                             24   |
| Gujarat                        |                                         39   |                                        25.1 |                                             39.7 |
| Himachal Pradesh               |                                         30.8 |                                        17.4 |                                             25.5 |
| Jammu &Kashmir                 |                                         26.9 |                                        19   |                                             21   |
| Karnataka                      |                                         35.4 |                                        19.5 |                                             32.9 |
| Kerala                         |                                         23.4 |                                        15.8 |                                             19.7 |
| Lakshadweep                    |                                         32   |                                        17.4 |                                             25.8 |
| Ladakh                         |                                         30.5 |                                        17.5 |                                             20.4 |
| Maharashtra                    |                                         35.2 |                                        25.6 |                                             36.1 |
| Meghalaya                      |                                         46.5 |                                        12.1 |                                             26.6 |
| Manipur                        |                                         23.4 |                                         9.9 |                                             13.3 |
| Mizoram                        |                                         28.9 |                                         9.8 |                                             12.7 |
| Nagaland                       |                                         32.7 |                                        19.1 |                                             26.9 |
| Sikkim                         |                                         22.3 |                                        13.7 |                                             13.1 |
| Telangana                      |                                         33.1 |                                        21.7 |                                             31.8 |
| Tripura                        |                                         32.3 |                                        18.2 |                                             25.6 |
| West Bengal                    |                                         33.8 |                                        20.3 |                                             32.2 |
| Arunachal Pradesh              |                                         28   |                                        13.1 |                                             15.4 |
| Chhattisgarh                   |                                         34.6 |                                        18.9 |                                             31.3 |
| Haryana                        |                                         27.5 |                                        11.5 |                                             21.5 |
| Jharkhand                      |                                         39.6 |                                        22.4 |                                             39.4 |
| Madhya Pradesh                 |                                         35.7 |                                        19   |                                             33   |
| Odisha                         |                                         31   |                                        18.1 |                                             29.7 |
| Punjab                         |                                         24.5 |                                        10.6 |                                             16.9 |
| Rajasthan                      |                                         31.8 |                                        16.8 |                                             27.6 |
| Tamil Nadu                     |                                         25   |                                        14.6 |                                             22   |
| Uttar Pradesh                  |                                         39.7 |                                        17.3 |                                             32.1 |
| Uttarakhand                    |                                         27   |                                        13.2 |                                             21   |
| Chandigarh                     |                                         25.3 |                                         8.4 |                                             20.6 |
| NCT of Delhi                   |                                         30.9 |                                        11.2 |                                             21.8 |
| Puducherry                     |                                         20   |                                        12.4 |                                             15.3 |

## State/UT wise prevalence of undernutrition among women aged 15-49 years as per National Family Health Survey (NFHS 5)

| State/UT                 |   Underweight (%) |
|--------------------------|-------------------|
| Andaman &Nicobar Islands |               9.4 |
| Andhra Pradesh           |              14.8 |
| Arunachal Pradesh        |               5.7 |
| Assam                    |              17.6 |
| Bihar                    |              25.6 |
| Chandigarh               |              13   |
| Chhattisgarh             |              23.1 |
| Dadra and Nagar Haveli   |              25.1 |
| Daman and Diu            |              25.1 |
| Delhi                    |              10   |
| Goa                      |              13.8 |
| Gujarat                  |              25.2 |
| Haryana                  |              15.1 |
| Himachal Pradesh         |              13.9 |
| Jammu &Kashmir           |               5.2 |
| Jharkhand                |              26.2 |
| Karnataka                |              17.2 |
| Kerala                   |              10.1 |
| Ladakh                   |               4.4 |
| Lakshadweep              |               8   |
| Madhya Pradesh           |              23   |
| Maharashtra              |              20.8 |
| Manipur                  |               7.2 |
| Meghalaya                |              10.8 |
| Mizoram                  |               5.3 |
| Nagaland                 |              11.1 |
| Odisha                   |              20.8 |
| Puducherry               |               9   |
| Punjab                   |              12.7 |
| Rajasthan                |              19.6 |
| Sikkim                   |               5.8 |
| Tamil Nadu               |              12.6 |
| Telangana                |              18.8 |
| Tripura                  |              16.2 |
| Uttar Pradesh            |              19   |
| Uttarakhand              |              13.9 |
| West Bengal              |              14.8 |

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