Lok Sabha Question No. 3853 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-03-25
Subject: Priority to Malnutrition Issues
Ministry: WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: Hema Malini

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3853

TO BE ANSWERED ON 25.03.2022

## 'PRIORITY TO MALNUTRITION ISSUES'

## 3853   SHRIMATI HEMA MALINI:

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

- (a) whether  the  Government  has  accorded  high  priority  to  the  issue  of  malnutrition and  is  implementing  several  schemes  under  the  Umbrella  Integrated  Child Development  Services  (ICDS)  scheme  as  directly  targeted  interventions  to address the problem of malnutrition in the country;
- (b) If so, the details thereof;
- (c) whether the Government is working on a plan to make the country malnutritionfree in a given time frame; and
- (d) if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

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

(a) to (d)    Government has accorded high priority to the problem of malnutrition in the country.  Anganwadi  Services  under  Umbrella  ICDS  Scheme  (earlier  known  as  ICDS) was launched in 1975, as 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  vicious  cycle  of  malnutrition, morbidity, reduced learning capacity and mortality on the other. The beneficiaries under this scheme are children in the age group of 0-6 years, pregnant women and lactating mothers. Total number of beneficiaries are:

| Beneficiaries under Anganwadi Services (As on 30.06.2021)        | Beneficiaries under Anganwadi Services (As on 30.06.2021)   |
|------------------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------|
| No of children aged 6 months - 6 years                           | 7,36,91,025                                                 |
| No. of Pregnant Women and Lactating Mothers                      | 1,69,25,928                                                 |
| Total No of Beneficiaries (Children 6 months-6 years plus PW&LM) | 9,06,16,953                                                 |

The objectives of the Scheme are:

- i. To improve the nutritional  and  health  status  of  children  in  the  age-group  of  0-6 years;
- ii. To lay the foundation for proper psychological, physical and social development of the child;
- iii. To reduce the incidence of mortality, morbidity, malnutrition and school dropouts;
- iv. To  achieve  effective  co-ordination  of  policy  and  implementation  amongst  the various departments to promote child development; and
- v. To  enhance  the  capability  of  the  mother  to  look  after  the  normal  health  and nutritional needs of the child through proper nutrition and health education.

Under the Scheme following six services is provided through the platform of Anganwadi Centres 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 NRHM & Public Health Infrastructure.

Supplementary  Nutrition: In  order  to  eradicate  malnutrition  among  pregnant  women and  lactating  mothers  and  children,  supplementary  nutrition  is  provided  as  per  the nutritional norms given below for 300 days in a year:

|   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 containing 500 calories of energy and 12-15 gms of protein in the form that is palatable to the child.            |
|        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 .                                           |

The Scheme today operates through a network of 7075 fully  operational  Projects  and 13.89 lakh AWCs  to 906.17 lakh beneficiaries of which 736.91 lakh are children under six  and  169.26  lakh  are  pregnant  women  &  lactating  mothers.  Till  June  2021,  a  total number of 200.44 lakh children of 3-6 years were covered under pre-school education of which 102.40 lakhs were boys and 98.04 lakhs were girls.

POSHAN  Abhiyaan  was  launched  on  8th  March  2018  with  an  aim  to  achieve improvement in nutritional status of Children under 6 years, Adolescent Girls, Pregnant Women and Lactating Mothers in a time bound manner by adopting a synergised and result oriented approach.

Further, Mission Poshan 2.0, an integrated nutrition support programme which subsumes Supplementary Nutrition Programme and POSHAN Abhiyaan, has been announced in budget 2021-2022 for all States/UTs 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 Poshan Tracker a robust ICT enabled platform, to improve governance with regard to real time monitoring and provisioning of supplementary nutrition for prompt supervisions and management of services.  The  Abhiyaan  empowers  Anganwadi  workers  and  Lady  Supervisors  by providing  them  with  smart  phones,  and  Growth  Monitoring  Devices  (comprises  of Stadiometer,  Infantometer,  Weighing  Scale  for  Infant  and  Mother  &  Child).  Further, Guidelines were issued for transparency and accountability in delivery of supplementary nutrition and to track nutritional outcomes on 13.01.2021.

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