Lok Sabha Question No. 3587 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2025-03-21
Subject: Fund for Saksham Anganwadi and POSHAN Abhiyan
Ministry: WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: Shri Prabhakar Reddy Vemireddy

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF WOMEN & CHILD DEVELOPMENT

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3587 TO BE ANSWERED ON 21.03.2025

## FUND FOR SAKSHAM ANGANWADI AND POSHAN ABHIYAN

## 3587.  SHRI PRABHAKAR REDDY VEMIREDDY:

Will the Minister of Women and Child Development be pleased to state:

- (a) whether it is true that Saksham Anganwadi and POSHAN Abhiyan and Scheme for Adolescent Girls have been reorganized into three primary verticals, if so, the details thereof;
- (b) whether it is true that funds released to the State of Andhra Pradesh have been reduced from Rs. 825 crores in 2019-20 to Rs. 705 crores in 2023-24 under the Mission Saksham Anganwadi and POSHAN 2.0;
- (c) if so, the reasons for decreasing in the release of funds to the State;
- (d) the details of funds allocated and releases from the year 2019-20 to February, 2025 for above two programmes in Andhra Pradesh, district-wise; and
- (e) the details of objectives set by the Government and achieved during the said period?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT (SHRIMATI SAVITRI THAKUR)

- (a)    Under  the  15th  Finance  Commission to address the challenge of malnutrition various  components  like  Anganwadi  services,  Poshan  Abhiyaan  and  Scheme  for Adolescent  girls  have  been  subsumed  under  the  umbrella  Mission  Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 (Mission Poshan 2.0) into the three primary verticals as given below:
- (i)  Nutrition Support for POSHAN through Supplementary Nutrition Programme (SNP) for children of the age group of 06 months to 6 years, pregnant women and lactating mothers  (PWLM);  and  for  Adolescent  Girls  in  the  age  group  of  14  to  18  years  in Aspirational Districts and North Eastern Region (NER);
- (ii)   Early  Childhood  Care  and  Education  [3-6  years]and  early  stimulation  for  (0-3 years);
- (iii) Anganwadi Infrastructure including modern, upgraded Saksham Anganwadi;

(b) to (d) Funds under the Mission Poshan 2.0 are allocated to States/UTs based on the  Annual  Programme  Implementation  Plan  (APIP)  proposals  received  from  the respective State Governments during APIP meetings and as per schematic norms. However, the actual funds are released in a financial year after adjusting the unspent balance available with the State Government and excess expenditure incurred by the State as well as compliance of Single Nodal Agency (SNA) norms. The details of funds allocated/released to the State of Andhra Pradesh under Mission Poshan 2.0 from FY 2019-20 to Feb, 2025 is as under:

(Rs in crores)

|   2019-20 |   2020-21 |   2021-22 |   2022-23 |   2023-24 |   2024-25 (as on 28.02.2025) |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------|------------------------------|
|    825.24 |    701.82 |     744.6 |    827.79 |    705.68 |                       521.79 |

- (e) The objectives of Mission Poshan 2.0 are as follows:
- To contribute to human capital development of the country;
- Address challenges of malnutrition;
-  Promote  nutrition  awareness  and  good  eating  habits  for  sustainable  health  and wellbeing; and
- Address nutrition related deficiencies through key strategies.

Under Mission Poshan 2.0 a new strategy has been made for reduction in malnutrition and  for  improved  health,  wellness  and  immunity  through  activities  like  community engagement,  outreach,  behavioral  change,  and  advocacy.  It  focuses  on  Maternal Nutrition,  Infant  and  Young  Child  Feeding  Norms,  treatment  of  Severe  Acute Malnutrition (SAM)/ Moderate Acute Malnutrition (MAM) and wellness through AYUSH practices to reduce prevalence of wasting, stunting, anemia and being underweight. The malnutrition status in children NFHS-5 (2019-21) and January 2025 (from Poshan Tracker) is as follows:

| NFHS and Poshan Tracker Stunting%   |   Underweight% |   Wasting% |
|-------------------------------------|----------------|------------|
| NFHS-5 (2019-21)* 35.5              |          32.1  |      19.3  |
| Poshan Tracker (Jan 2025)* 39.61    |          16.95 |       5.43 |

Age of children (0-5 years)

The achievements recorded in the NFHS during the last five years are as under: -

| Maternal Health Indicators                                                                                                        |   NFHS 4 |   NFHS 5 |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------|----------|
| Mothers who had an antenatal check-up in the first trimester (%)                                                                  |     58.6 |     70   |
| Institutional births                                                                                                              |     78.9 |     88.6 |
| Births attended by skilled health personnel (doctor/ nurse/ LHV/ ANM/ other health personnel (%)                                  |     81.4 |     89.4 |
| Mothers who received postnatal care from a doctor/ nurse/ LHV/ ANM/ midwife/ other health personnel within 2 days of delivery (%) |     62.4 |     81.7 |

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