Lok Sabha Question No. 3566 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2026-03-13
Subject: Malnutrition among Children in Tribal/Tea Garden Areas
Ministry: WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: Shri Arup Chakraborty

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT

LOK SABHA UN-STARRED QUESTION NO. 3566 TO BE ANSWERED ON 13.03.2026

## MALNUTRITION AMONG CHILDREN IN TRIBAL/TEA GARDEN AREAS

## 3566. SHRI ARUP CHAKRABORTY:

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

- (a) whether the Government is aware of severe malnutrition among children in tribal, teagarden and rural areas in several States, if so, the details thereof;
- (b) the  number  of  severely  underweight  children  (0-6  years)  identified  under  Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) during the last three years, State-wise;
- (c) whether funds under Supplementary Nutrition Programme (SNP) and Poshan Tracker are being fully released to Anganwadi centres on time, if so, the details thereof; and
- (d) whether the Government proposes to introduce real-time public audit of Anganwadi nutrition supply and beneficiary attendance to prevent leakages and ghost entries, if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT (SHRIMATI ANNPURNA DEVI)

(a) to (d): To address the challenge of malnutrition, Anganwadi services, Poshan Abhiyaan and Scheme  for  Adolescent  girls  (age  14-18  years  in  Aspirational  Districts  and  North-Eastern region) have been subsumed under the umbrella Mission Poshan 2.0. This Mission includes beneficiaries; Children under 6 years of age, pregnant women, lactating mothers and adolescent girls of the country including tribal, tea-garden and rural areas.

The number of severely underweight children identified under Mission Poshan 2.0 during the last three years, (State-wise); is available at the link: https://www.poshantracker.in/statistics Mission  Poshan  2.0  is  a  Centrally  Sponsored  scheme  where  the  responsibility  for  the implementation of various activities lies with the States and UTs. The funds are released to the States and UTs, which are subsequently transferred to the Anganwadi Centres. The details of funds released to the State and UTs during the last 3 years are placed at Annexure.

The 'Poshan Tracker' digital application has rolled out as an important ICT based governance tool  for  monitoring  and  tracking  of  all  Anganwadi  Centres  (AWCs),  Anganwadi  Workers (AWWs) and beneficiaries on defined indicators. It has facilitated near real time data collection for Anganwadi Services. The public dashboard of Poshan Tracker has information related to AWC infrastructure, details on opening of AWCs, number of registered beneficiaries and status of Aadhaar verification. It also has details on services like Supplementary Nutrition Programme (SNP), Growth Measurement status of children and home visit details of pregnant women, lactating  mothers  and  0-2  years  children.  For  last  mile  tracking  of  service  delivery,  Facial Recognition System (FRS) has been introduced in Poshan Tracker application for distribution of TakeHome Ration (THR) to ensure that benefit is given only to the intended beneficiary registered on the Poshan Tracker to prevent leakages and ghost entries.

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Annexure THE FUNDS RELEASED TO THE STATE AND UTS DURING LAST 3 YEARS:

(Rupees in crores)

|   S. No. | Name of the State and UTs   | Funds released (2022-23)   | Funds released (2023-24)   | Funds released (2024-25)   |
|----------|-----------------------------|----------------------------|----------------------------|----------------------------|
|        1 | Andaman and Nicobar Islands | 3.85                       | 12.15                      | 9.63                       |
|        2 | Andhra Pradesh              | 827.79                     | 705.68                     | 645.73                     |
|        3 | Arunachal Pradesh           | 137.78                     | 162.06                     | 102.61                     |
|        4 | Assam                       | 1,651.63                   | 2,233.31                   | 2,482.34                   |
|        5 | Bihar                       | 1,740.09                   | 1,859.29                   | 2,262.92                   |
|        6 | Chandigarh                  | 33.10                      | 19.79                      | 14.56                      |
|        7 | Chhattisgarh                | 668.96                     | 579.46                     | 733.30                     |
|        8 | DNH&DD                      | 5.80                       | 11.97                      | 9.13                       |
|        9 | Delhi                       | 182.77                     | 161.81                     | 160.41                     |
|       10 | Goa                         | 14.71                      | 13.95                      | 13.44                      |
|       11 | Gujarat                     | 912.64                     | 1,126.80                   | 601.32                     |
|       12 | Haryana                     | 195.25                     | 225.78                     | 232.69                     |
|       13 | Himachal Pradesh            | 270.24                     | 301.09                     | 313.07                     |
|       14 | Jammu &Kashmir              | 479.01                     | 530.88                     | 662.79                     |
|       15 | Jharkhand                   | 430.91                     | 664.30                     | 496.95                     |
|       16 | Karnataka                   | 765.87                     | 912.96                     | 886.85                     |
|       17 | Kerala                      | 444.98                     | 306.64                     | 435.74                     |
|       18 | Ladakh                      | 18.79                      | 19.62                      | 18.89                      |
|       19 | Lakshadweep                 | 0.44                       | 2.88                       | 1.35                       |
|       20 | Madhya Pradesh              | 1,011.57                   | 1,123.11                   | 1,144.54                   |
|       21 | Maharashtra                 | 1,646.17                   | 1,699.52                   | 1,368.84                   |
|       22 | Manipur                     | 135.95                     | 201.28                     | 342.87                     |
|       23 | Meghalaya                   | 192.39                     | 269.69                     | 137.93                     |
|       24 | Mizoram                     | 42.81                      | 100.27                     | 55.29                      |
|       25 | Nagaland                    | 199.30                     | 262.91                     | 147.01                     |
|       26 | Odisha                      | 923.92                     | 968.80                     | 948.16                     |
|       27 | Puducherry                  | 0.12                       | 4.48                       | 3.68                       |
|       28 | Punjab                      | 75.31                      | 307.87                     | 265.48                     |
|       29 | Rajasthan                   | 974.02                     | 1,091.96                   | 741.85                     |
|       30 | Sikkim                      | 20.33                      | 33.49                      | 18.07                      |
|       31 | Tamil Nadu                  | 766.81                     | 880.79                     | 638.47                     |
|       32 | Telangana                   | 550.69                     | 507.87                     | 430.76                     |
|       33 | Tripura                     | 150.52                     | 244.22                     | 153.41                     |
|       34 | Uttar Pradesh               | 2,721.87                   | 2,668.69                   | 2,694.62                   |
|       35 | Uttarakhand                 | 425.84                     | 288.24                     | 216.33                     |
|       36 | West Bengal                 | 1,227.59                   | 1,237.56                   | 1,513.80                   |