Lok Sabha Question No. 2205 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-07-29
Subject: Study on Malnutrition
Ministry: WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: Hanuman Beniwal

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF WOMEN & CHILD DEVELOPMENT

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.2205

TO BE ANSWERED ON 29.07.2022

## STUDY ON MALNUTRITION

## 2205.  SHRI HANUMAN BENIWAL:

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

- (a) Whether  the  Government  has  conducted  any  study  about  the  main  reasons  of malnutrition among children in different States of the country including Rajasthan;
- (b) If so, the details and the outcome thereof;
- (c) The  funds  provided  to  the  Government  of  -  Rajasthan  by  the  Union  Government  to Check malnutrition during the last five years;
- (d) the details of the expenditure incurred form the said funds on different heads; and
- (e) The details of deaths caused due to malnutrition during the last five years State- wise?

## ANSWER

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

(a)  &  (b)  Malnutrition  is  a  complex,  multi-dimensional  issue,  affected  mainly  by  a  number of generic factors including poverty, inadequate food consumption due to access and availability issues,   improper  maternal  infant  and  child  feeding  and  care  practices,  inequity  and  gender imbalances,  poor  sanitary  and  environmental  conditions  etc.  Under  the  aegis  of  Ministry  of Health  and  Family  Welfare,  a  nation-wide  survey,  Comprehensive  National  Nutrition  Survey (CNNS) was conducted to collect  comprehensive set of data on nutritional  status  of Indian children upto 19 years of age during 2016-18.

Further, the status of malnutrition (stunting, wasting, and underweight) in the country amongst  children  under  5  years  is  provided  by  the  National  Family  Health  Survey  (NFHS) conducted periodically by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare .As per NFHS-5 (2019-21), there has been improvement in the key nutrition indicators as compared to NFHS-4 (2015-16). Among  children  under  5  years  of  age,  Stunting  has  reduced  from  38.4%  to  35.5%,  while Wasting has reduced from 21.0% in  to 19.3% in  and Underweight has reduced from 35.8% in to  32.1%  .  As  per  the  NFHS  -5  report  for  Rajasthan,  wasting  has  reduced  from  23.0%  to 16.8%, Stunting has reduced from 39.1% to 31.8% and underweight prevalence has reduced from 36.7% to 27.6%

(c) & (d) The  financial  assistance  provided  under  two   targeted  interventions   of  the Ministry to address the issue of malnutrition among children namely Supplementary Nutrition Program and Poshan Abhiyaan and the expenditure incurred by the State of Rajasthan, for the same,  is at Annexure I and II, respectively.

- (e) Malnutrition  is  not  a  direct  cause  of  death;  however,  it  can  increase  morbidity  and mortality by reducing resistance to infections. Thus dis-aggregated data regarding the number of deaths directly due to malnutrition is not available.

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## Annexure I

## Funds released during last five years (2017-22) to State of Rajasthan in respect of Supplementary Nutrition Program:

## (Rupees in Lakhs)

| Sl. No.   | F.Y      | Status of funds released to State Government of Rajasthan under Supplementary Nutrition Program SNP   | Status of funds released to State Government of Rajasthan under Supplementary Nutrition Program SNP   | Status of funds released to State Government of Rajasthan under Supplementary Nutrition Program SNP   |
|-----------|----------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|           |          | APIP Approved                                                                                         | Funds released                                                                                        | Funds Utilized                                                                                        |
| 1         | 2017- 18 | 28939.88                                                                                              | 34931.86                                                                                              | 36660.76                                                                                              |
| 2         | 2018- 19 | 33221.84                                                                                              | 34950.74                                                                                              | 29599.82                                                                                              |
| 3         | 2019- 20 | 36544.02                                                                                              | 29913.62                                                                                              | 28231.68                                                                                              |
| 4         | 2020- 21 | 40198.42                                                                                              | 34894.46                                                                                              | 36702.71                                                                                              |
| 5         | 2021- 22 | 34894.46                                                                                              | 31399.25                                                                                              | Utilization note due                                                                                  |

Note:  (1)  Funds  are  released  out  of  approved  allocation  after  adjusting  unspent balances / excess expenditure incurred by the States/UTs in the previous year.

(3)  Fund  utilized  are  more  than  the  funds  released/approved  allocation  due  to availability of unspent balance of previous year.

APIP- Annual Programme Implementation Plan

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## Annexure II

## Funds  released  and  utilized  for  the  last  five  years  (2017-22)  w.r.t.  the  State  of Rajasthan under Poshan Abhiyan

## (Rupees in Lakhs)

|   Sl. |   Central Funds released in 2017-18 |   Central Funds released in 2018- 19 |   Central Funds released in 2019- 20 |   Central Funds released in 2020- 21 |   Central Funds released in 2021- 22 |   Total Central Funds released till 31.03.2022 |   Total Central Funds utilised as on 31.03.2022 |
|-------|-------------------------------------|--------------------------------------|--------------------------------------|--------------------------------------|--------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------|
|     1 |                             4282.22 |                              9680.99 |                                 8941 |                                    0 |                                    0 |                                        22904.2 |                                         12258.1 |