Lok Sabha Question No. 424 (STARRED), answered on 2023-03-31
Subject: Poshan Abhiyaan in Assam
Ministry: WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: Abdul Khaleque

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT

## LOK SABHA

## STARRED QUESTION NO. *424

## TO BE ANSWERED ON 31.03.2023

## 'POSHAN ABHIYAAN IN ASSAM'

- *424 SHRI ABDUL KHALEQUE

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

- (a) whether the Government has been able to achieve the objectives of Poshan Abhiyaan in Assam, if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor;
- (b) the number of Anganwadi Centres in Assam wherein Poshan Abhiyaan is being implemented, district-wise; and
- (c) whether the Ministry has conducted any study on the results of this scheme in Assam, if so, the details and outcome thereof?

## ANSWER

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

(a) to (c)   A statement is laid on the table of the House

*****

## STATEMENT REFERRED TO REPLY TO PARTS (A)  TO  (E)  OF  LOK  SABHA STARRED  QUESTION  NO.  *424  FOR  ANSWER  ON  31.03.2023  REGARDING POSHAN ABHIYAAN IN ASSAM ASKED BY SHRI ABDUL KHALEQUE, HON'BLE MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT (LS).

(a) Government launched POSHAN Abhiyaan on 8 th  March 2018 to address the malaise of malnutrition in the country. 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. The Scheme has been launched in all 36 States/UTs of the country. 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).

For estimating the number of underweight, malnourished and severely malnourished children under 5 years of age in the country a nationwide periodic survey is conducted by Ministry of Health & Family Welfare which is known as the National Family Health Survey (NFHS). The recently released report of NFHS-5 (2019-21) has reflected a decline in key nutrition indicators as compared to NFHS-4 (2015-16). As per the recent report of NFHS-5 (2019-21), the nutrition indicators for children under 5 years in the country have improved as compared with NFHS-4 (2015-16). In Assam, Stunting has decreased (from 36.4% to 35.3%), but underweight prevalence, wasting and anemia in children under 5 years and in women aged 15-49 years has increased.

61,722 Anganwadi Centres of Assam are registered on the ICT application, Poshan Tracker. Technology under Poshan Tracker is being leveraged for inter alia, dynamic identification of stunting, wasting, under-weight prevalence among children and last mile tracking of nutrition service delivery. The number of beneficiaries registered under different categories from the State of Assam, are as given below:

| Total     | Pregnant Women   | Lactating Mothers   | Children (0-6 m)   | Children (6m-3y)   |   Children (3-6yrs) |
|-----------|------------------|---------------------|--------------------|--------------------|---------------------|
| 35,26,039 | 1,51,139         | 1,65,177            | 1,89,667           | 12,98,955          |             1721101 |

Out of the 35.26 lakh registered beneficiaries, about 88% are Aadhar-seeded.

Further,  an  important  focus  of  the  Scheme  has  been  on  'Behaviour  Change Communication' through Jan Andolan. At the national level, Rashtriya Poshan Maah is celebrated in the month of September across the country while Poshan Pakhwada is  celebrated  in  March.  Over  the  years,  themes  have  included  overall  nutrition, hygiene,  water  and  sanitation,  anemia  prevention,  importance  of  breast-feeding, growth  monitoring,  role  of  Poshan  Panchayats,  AYUSH  for  Well-being,  Yoga  for Health, importance of Poshan Vatikas for cultivation of local vegetables, medicinal plants/herbs and fruits at the community level etc.

In Poshan Pakhwada and Poshan Maah 2022, close to 16,000 and 5.9 lakh activities, respectively, were conducted across the State of Assam Malnutrition is a complex and multi-dimensional  issue,  affected  mainly  by  a  number  of  generic  factors  including inadequate food consumption due to economic and social factors, inequity and gender imbalances, poor sanitary and environmental conditions, etc The nutritional status of the population is outcome of complex and inter-related set of factors and cannot be improved by the efforts of single sector alone. Therefore, it  needs a multi-pronged approach.

- (b) POSHAN Abhiyaan is being implemented across all the districts of the state covering 61,722 Anganwadi Centres. The district -wise Anganwadi centres covered under POSHAN Abhiyaan is at Annexure I.
- (c) Development Monitoring & Evaluation Office (DMEO) under NITI Aayog has conducted Sectoral Evaluation of schemes including POSHAN Abhiyaan.  Performance of POSHAN Abhiyaan has been found 'Satisfactory' in the categories of Relevance, Sustainability and Equity.

Annexure I District wise number of Anganwadi Centres in Assam

| District               |   Total Active AWCs |
|------------------------|---------------------|
| Baksa                  |                2636 |
| Barpeta                |                2913 |
| Biswanath              |                1839 |
| Bongaigaon             |                1116 |
| Cachar                 |                3941 |
| Charaideo              |                 668 |
| Chirang                |                 920 |
| Darrang                |                2163 |
| Dhemaji                |                1557 |
| Dhubri                 |                2409 |
| Dibrugarh              |                2156 |
| Dima Hasao             |                 613 |
| Goalpara               |                2488 |
| Golaghat               |                2223 |
| Hailakandi             |                1374 |
| Hojai                  |                1923 |
| Jorhat                 |                1645 |
| Kamrup                 |                3246 |
| Kamrup Metro           |                1021 |
| KarbiAnglong           |                2218 |
| Karimganj              |                1570 |
| Kokrajhar              |                1687 |
| Lakhimpur              |                3066 |
| Majuli                 |                 598 |
| Morigaon               |                2132 |
| Nagaon                 |                3993 |
| Nalbari                |                1527 |
| Sivasagar              |                1229 |
| Sonitpur               |                1989 |
| South SalmaraMankachar |                 550 |
| Tamulpur               |                   0 |
| Tinsukia               |                2021 |
| Udalguri               |                1439 |
| West Karbi-Anglong     |                 852 |
| Total                  |               61722 |