Lok Sabha Question No. 4927 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-04-01
Subject: Malnourished Newborn Babies
Ministry: HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE
Asked by: Keshari Devi Patel, Kanakmal Katara

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED PARLIAMENT QUESTION 4927 TO BE ANSWERED ON 1 ST  APRIL 2022

## MALNOURISHED NEWBORN BABIES

## 4927: SHRIMATI KESHARI DEVI PATEL: SHRI KANAKMAL KATARA:

Will the Minister of HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE be pleased to state:

- (a) the steps taken by the Government for the care and nursing of malnourished newborn babies;
- (b) whether the number of malnourished children has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic period and if so, the details of the steps taken to deal with this situation;
- (c) whether steps are being taken and timely monitoring is being done for ensuring implementation of mother and child related schemes effectively at the ground level; and (d) if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE (DR. BHARATI PRAVIN PAWAR)

- (a) to (d): Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) is supporting all States/UTs for care and nursing of malnourished and low birth weight newborn babies under Reproductive, Maternal, New-born, Child, Adolescent health and Nutrition (RMNCAH+N) strategy of National Health Mission (NHM) based on the Annual Program Implementation Plan (APIP) submitted by States/ UTs.

The details of Nutritional Status of Children as per National Family Health Survey (NFHS)4 & 5 are attached in annexure-1.

## Steps taken by Government:

-  Mothers'  Absolute  Affection  (MAA): Under  NHM,  Mothers'  Absolute  Affection (MAA) program is implemented for capacity building of healthcare providers to improve the infant and young child feeding practices including breast feeding in facility as well as community set up, as promotion of appropriate infant and young child feeding practices contributes to prevention of malnutrition in children.
-  The Government has released guidelines for establishing the Comprehensive Lactation Management Centres (CLMCs) for provision of Donor Human Milk for the very sick/

preterm/ very low birth-weight newborns admitted in NICUs/ SNCUs, who are not able to get their own mothers' breast milk due to unavoidable reasons. Also, there is provision of Lactation Management units (LMUs) for ensuring availability of own mother's milk to the newborns admitted in SNCUs.

-  Nutrition Rehabilitation Centres (NRCs) are set up at public health facilities to treat and manage the children with Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) admitted with medical complications.
-  Facility Based New-born Care: Sick New-born Care Units (SNCUs) are established at District Hospital and Medical College level, New-born Stabilization Units (NBSUs) are established at First Referral Units (FRUs)/ Community Health Centres (CHCs) for care of sick and small Newborn babies.
-  Community Based care of New-born and Young Children: Under Home Based Newborn Care (HBNC) and Home-Based Care of Young Children (HBYC) program, home visits  are  performed by  ASHAs to improve child rearing practices and to identify sick new-born and young children in the community.
-  Social  Awareness  and  Actions  to  Neutralize  Pneumonia  Successfully  (SAANS) initiative  implemented  since  2019  for  reduction  of  morbidity  and  mortality  due  to Pneumonia.
-  Capacity  Building: Several  capacity  building  programs  of  health  care  providers  are taken up for improving maternal and child survival and health outcomes. Such as Navjat Sishu  Suraksha  Karyakaram  (NSSK),  Newborn  Stabilization  Units  (NBSU)  training, Facility  Based  Newborn  Care  (FBNC)  trainings,  Facility  Based  IMNCI  and  IMNCI training, ASHA trainings.
-  Health Management Information System (HMIS), a Government to Government (G2G) web-based Monitoring Information System has been put in place by Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW) for capturing the data on implementation of mother and child related schemes and monitoring of maternal and child related health indicators.
-  Reproductive and Child health (RCH) portal, a name-based web-enabled tracking system is put in place for to provision of regular and complete services to pregnant women and children including antenatal care, institutional delivery and post-natal care.
-  Maternal  and  Child  health  programmes  are  monitored  under  National  Health  Mission through regular review ofquarterly reports, annual reviews during the appraisals process of Programme Implementation Plans, field visits and periodic meeting with State nodal officers and through Common Review Missions.

| Nutritional Status of Children                    | Nutritional Status of Children                                      | Nutritional Status of Children                    | Nutritional Status of Children                    |
|---------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------|
| S. No.                                            | Indicators                                                          | NFHS 4                                            | NFHS 5                                            |
| 1                                                 | Children under 5 years who are stunted (height-for-age)%            | 38.4                                              | 35.5                                              |
| 2                                                 | Children under 5 years who are wasted (weight-for-height)%          | 21.0                                              | 19.3                                              |
| 3                                                 | Children under 5 years who are severely wasted (weight-for-height)% | 7.5                                               | 7.7                                               |
| 4                                                 | Children under 5 years who are underweight (weight-for-age)%        | 35.8                                              | 32.1                                              |
| Source: National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 4 &5 | Source: National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 4 &5                   | Source: National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 4 &5 | Source: National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 4 &5 |