Lok Sabha Question No. 142 (STARRED), answered on 2022-12-16
Subject: Schemes for Children
Ministry: WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: Chandra Sekhar Sahu, Girish Bhalchandra Bapat

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT

## LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO.142

TO BE ANSWERED ON 16.12.2022

## SCHEMES FOR CHILDREN

- *142. SHRI CHANDRA SHEKHAR SAHU: SHRI GIRISH BHALCHANDRA BAPAT:

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

- a. whether the Government has implemented various schemes for the betterment of children, especially for girl child in the country, if so, the details thereof, schemewise;
- b. the  details  of  the  criteria,  rules  and  regulations  framed  for  implementation  of these schemes;
- c. whether  many  States  have  not  shown  interest  in  implementing  some  of  these schemes, if so, the details thereof indicating the names of such States and the action  taken  by  the  Union  Government  to  implement  said  schemes  in  these States;
- d. whether  the  Government  has  also  examined  the  use  of  Double  Fortified  Salt under various Women and Child Development (WCD) schemes to deal with the issue of anaemia among Mother and Child in the country; and
- e. if  so,  the details thereof and the action taken by the Government for promoting use of Double Fortified Salt under WCD schemes in the country?

## ANSWER

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

- (a) to (e) : A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.

*****

STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PART (A) TO (E) OF THE LOK SABHA STARRED  QUESTION  NO.142  FOR  ANSWER  ON  16.12.2022  RAISED  BY  SHRI CHANDRA SHEKHAR SAHU AND SHRI GIRISH BHALCHANDRA BAPAT REGARDING SCHEMES FOR CHILDREN

(a)  &  (b)  :  The  Ministry  of  Women  and  Child  Development  is  implementing  various schemes through the States/UTs in a predefined cost sharing norms for the betterment of children including girl child in the country.  These include :

- I.          Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) : BBBP scheme under Sambal sub-scheme of  Mission  Shakti  aims  to  prevent  Gender biased  sex  selective  elimination,  to  ensure survival  and  protection  of  girl  child  and  also  to  ensure  education of  the  girl  child. The scheme  has  been  expanded  to  cover all  the  districts  of  the  country  through  multisectoral  interventions  focused  on  zero-budget  advertising  and  encouraging  greater spend on activities that have on ground impact, e.g., promotion of sports among girls, self-defence  camps,  construction  of  girls  toilets,  making  available  sanitary  napkin vending machines and sanitary pads especially in educational institutions, awareness about  Pre-Conception  &  Pre-Natal  Diagnostic  Techniques  Act,  1994  (PC-PNDT  Act, 1994) and skilling of girls etc.

Keeping in mind the differential Sex Ratio at Birth (SRB) status of districts as on 202021 (as per HMIS data of MoH&FW), three brackets for release of funds under BBBP component have been prescribed. The districts with SRB less than or equal to 918 is provided assistance of Rs.40 Lakh per year, districts having SRB from 919 to 952 is provided assistance of Rs.30 lakh per year and districts having SRB more than 952 is provided assistance of Rs.20 lakh per year.

The  scheme  is  100%  funded  by  the  Central  Government  and  the  funds  are  routed through  State  to  districts  for  multi-sectoral  interventions.  BBBP  scheme  is  being implemented in all the States except West Bengal.

II.         Saksham Anganwadi and Mission Poshan 2.0 Scheme : The scheme aims to address Government's commitment to address the challenge of child malnutrition and maternal under-nutrition  through  a  strategic  shift  in  nutrition  content  and  delivery  and create conditions and a convergent eco-system to develop practices that nurture health, wellness and immunity. Components under Saksham Anganwadi have been reorganized in primary verticals :

- a.  Nutrition  Support  for  POSHAN  and for  Adolescent  Girls;  Early  Childhood  Care and Education [3-6 years];
- b.  Anganwadi  Infrastructure  including  modern,  upgraded  Saksham  Anganwadis. Beneficiaries  registered  at  AWCs  will  be  covered,  viz.,  Children  6  months  -  6 years of age; Pregnant Women and Lactating Mothers (PWLM) and Adolescent Girls (14-18 years) in Aspirational Districts and NER.
- c.  Poshan Abhiyaan

Anganwadi  services  (under  Saksham  Anganwadi  and  Poshan  2.0)  provides  the following  six  services  across  the  country  through  the  platform  of  Anganwadi  Centres (AWCs) to the eligible beneficiaries :

- i. Supplementary Nutrition (SNP)
- ii. Pre-school Non-formal Education,
- iii. Nutrition & Health Education,
- iv. Immunization,
- v. Health Check-up, and
- vi. Referral Services

Three of the six services, viz., Immunization, Health check-up and Referral Services are related  to  health  and  are  provided  through  NHM  &  Public  Health  Infrastructure.  The Anganwadi Services is a universal self-selecting Scheme  available to all the beneficiaries who enroll at the AWCs.  The beneficiaries under this scheme are children in the age group of 0-6 years, pregnant women and lactating mothers.

The details of supplementary nutrition provided to different categories of the beneficiaries as per the norms for 300 days in a year are given as under :

|   S. No. | Categories                                    | Types of food                                                                                                                                          |
|----------|-----------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|        1 | Children (0-6 months)                         | Exclusive Breast feeding for first 6 months of life.                                                                                                   |
|        2 | Children (6-36 months)                        | Take Home Ration in the form that is palatable to the child. It could be given in the form of micro-nutrient fortified food and/or energy dense food . |
|        3 | Severely mal-nourished children (6-36 months) | Same type of food as above with food supplement of 800 calories of energy and 20-25 gms. of Protein.                                                   |
|        4 | Children (3-6 years)                          | Morning snack in the form of milk/banana/seasonal fruits etc. and Hot cooked Meal.                                                                     |
|        5 | Severely mal-nourished children (3-6 years)   | Additional 300 calories of energy and 8-10 gms. of Protein in the form of micro-nutrient fortified food and/or energy dense food .                     |
|        6 | Pregnant women & Nursing mothers              | Take Home Ration in the form of micro-nutrient fortified food and/or energy dense food .                                                               |

POSHAN Abhiyaan : POSHAN Abhiyaan aims   to address malnutrition issues across the  country  through  components  like  ICT  Application,  Convergence,  Community Mobilization,  Behavioural  Change  &  Jan  Andolan,  Capacity  Building,  Incentives  and Awards, and Innovations.  The Abhiyaan also aims at improving the nutritional status of Children  from  0-6  years,  Adolescent  Girls,  Pregnant  Women  and  Lactating  Mothers. POSHAN     Abhiyaan  focuses  on  convergence  among  partner  Ministries  leveraging technology  and  Jan  Andolan  among  other  things,  to  address  issue  of  malnutrition comprehensively.  Near-real  time  reporting  by  field  functionaries  and  improved  MIS  is aimed at smooth implementation of scheme and better service delivery.

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 | 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 eco-system  to  develop  and  promote  practices  that  nurture  health,  wellness  and immunity.

Poshan  2.0  focuses  on  Maternal  Nutrition,  Infant  and  Young  Child  Feeding  Norms, Treatment  of  Moderately  Acute  Malnourished/Severely  Acute  Malnourished  children and Wellness through AYUSH. It rests on the pillars of Convergence, Governance, and Capacity-building.  POSHAN  Abhiyaan  is  the  key  pillar  for  Outreach  and  will  cover innovations  related  to  nutritional  support,  ICT  interventions,  Media  Advocacy  and Research, Community Outreach and Jan Andolan. 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  provisioning  of  supplementary nutrition for prompt supervision and management of services.

All the States/UTs have been covered under the Abhiyaan and thus implementing the scheme to ensure a holistic approach.

III.      Mission Vatsalya Scheme : The Ministry is implementing a centrally sponsored scheme namely Mission Vatsalya Scheme to support the State and UT Governments for delivering services for Children in Need of Care and Protection (CNCP) and Children in  Conflict  with  Law  (CCL).  The  Child  Care  Institutions  (CCIs)  established  under  the scheme  support  inter-alia  age-appropriate  education,  access  to  vocational  training, recreation, health care and counselling. The Ministry regularly follows up with the State/ UT Governments so as to ensure that CCIs adhere to the standards of care as per the Juvenile  Justice  (Care  and  Protection  of  Children)  Act,  2015  (as  amended  in  2021) provisions. Various advisories have been sent to all State/UT Governments regarding mandatory inspection of all CCIs. As on 31.03.2022, 76118 children supported under Mission Vatsalya Scheme in 2245 CCIs.

Some new provisions have been included in the Mission Vatsalya scheme guidelines such as District Magistrates being empowered as nodal authority in the district for care and  protection  of  children  in  difficult  circumstances;  priority  is  accorded  to  NonInstitutional care in the rehabilitation and reintegration of children through Sponsorship, Foster Care, adoption and After Care in a family and community based alternatives for care and at the State level, it provides for a committee to monitor, review and promote convergence for effective implementation of the scheme.

(c)  :  Physical  and  Financial  progress  under BBBP scheme, Saksham Anganwadi and Mission Poshan 2.0 scheme and Mission Vatsalya Scheme for the last five years are as under :

## I.          BBBP scheme :

## A.        Physical Progress

|   S. No. | F.Y.    |   Sex Ratio at Birth (as per HMIS, MoHFW) |
|----------|---------|-------------------------------------------|
|        1 | 2017-18 |                                       929 |
|        2 | 2018-19 |                                       931 |
|        3 | 2019-20 |                                       934 |
|        4 | 2020-21 |                                       937 |
|        5 | 2021-22 |                                       934 |

## B.        Financial Progress

|   S. No. | F.Y.    |   Expenditure |
|----------|---------|---------------|
|        1 | 2017-18 |        169.1  |
|        2 | 2018-19 |        244.73 |
|        3 | 2019-20 |         85.78 |
|        4 | 2020-21 |         60.57 |
|        5 | 2021-22 |         57.13 |

## II.        Saksham Anganwadi and Mission Poshan 2.0 scheme

## A.        Physical Progress

Total number of beneficiaries under Anganwadi Services (as on 30.06.2022) :

|   1 | No of children aged 6 months - 6 years                             | 7,70,97,588   |
|-----|--------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------|
|   2 | No. of Pregnant Women and Lactating Mothers                        | 1,80,37,428   |
|   3 | Total No of Beneficiaries (Children 6 months - 6 years plus PW&LM) | 9,51,35,016   |

## B.        Financial Progress

## (Rs. In Crore)

## (Rupees in crore)

|   Sl. No. | Year    | Funds released   |
|-----------|---------|------------------|
|         1 | 2017-18 | 15,155.34        |
|         2 | 2018-19 | 16,811.71        |
|         3 | 2019-20 | 16,891.99        |
|         4 | 2020-21 | 15784.39         |
|         5 | 2021-22 | 18208.85         |

## III.        Mission Vatsalya Scheme

## A.        Physical Progress

|   S. No. | F.Y.    | Number of Beneficiaries   |
|----------|---------|---------------------------|
|        1 | 2017-18 | 76,231                    |
|        2 | 2018-19 | 74,683                    |
|        3 | 2019-20 | 77,765                    |
|        4 | 2020-21 | 77,615                    |
|        5 | 2021-22 | 76,118                    |

## B.        Financial Progress

|   S. No. | F.Y.    |   Expenditure |
|----------|---------|---------------|
|        1 | 2017-18 |        637.82 |
|        2 | 2018-19 |        915.87 |
|        3 | 2019-20 |        682.12 |
|        4 | 2020-21 |        856.65 |
|        5 | 2021-22 |        761.18 |

## (Rs. In Crore)

(d)  &  (e)  :  Fortification  of  staple  food  items,  including  salt,  is  one  of  the  strategies  to address micronutrient deficiencies in addition to dietary diversification and   micronutrient supplementation along with other measures like infection control,   water and sanitation, etc. Therefore, in order to reduce the prevalence of micronutrient deficiencies including anaemia,  emphasis  is  given  on  all  the  strategies  through  the  Schemes/programmes implemented by the various Departments/ Ministries. These include iron and folic acid supplementation, calcium supplementation, Vitamin-A supplementation, use of fortified food  items,  etc.   Ministry  has  issued  advisory  to  all  the  States/UTs  to  ensure  use  of relevant fortified food articles (wherever supplied), including Double Fortified Salt in the administration of the Supplementary Nutrition Programme.

Further,  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  with focus on local, wholesome foods to bridge dietary gaps including deficit in the intake of micronutrients.  Also,  as  per  the  Scheme  Guidelines,  local  foods  and  fresh  produce (green  vegetables,  fruits,  medicinal  plants  and  herbs),  fortified  rice  and  mandatory incorporation  of  millets  at  least  once  a  week  in  meals  for  different  categories  of beneficiaries to promote health, wellness and immunity and to manage anaemia.

In order to address the issue of anaemia, the Government has approved the supply of fortified  rice  (fortified  with  Iron,  Vitamin  B-12  and  Folic  Acid)  throughout  the  Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) and in Other  Welfare  Schemes  of  Government  of  India  in  all  States  and    Union  Territories (UTs) in a phased manner. Under Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0, Fortified Rice is allocated to all the State/UTs. In FY 2021-22, 7.34   lakh Metric Ton of fortified rice was allocated to States. This year till date, 9.32 lakh Metric Ton has been allocated.

*****