Malnutrition Among Children

Question by: Rahul Kaswan.

1. whether the prevalence of malnutrition is highest in the country globally;
2. Whether the Government is aware that forty four percent children below the age of three years are suffering from malnutrition;
3. the names and details of such States where the number of children suffering from malnutrition are the highest; and
4. the corrective steps taken by Government in this regard?

Answer by:Minister of Women and Child Development (Smriti Zubin Irani)

• National Family Health Survey – 3 (2005-06) provides the data on malnourishment status of children below the age of 3 years. As per NFHS-3, the prevalence of stunting and underweight among children under 3 years of age was 44.9% and 40.4% respectively.
• As per the report of NFHS-4 conducted in 2015-16, 35.7% children under 5 years of age are underweight and 38.4% are stunted. Whereas, as per the report of Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey (CNNS) (2016-18), the prevalence of underweight and stunting among children is 33.4% and 34.7% respectively.
• This Ministry implements Anganwadi Services, Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana and Scheme for Adolescent Girls under the Umbrella Integrated Child Development Services Scheme (ICDS) as targeted interventions to address the problem of malnutrition in the country.
• Further, POSHAN Abhiyaan has been launched in March 2018 to achieve improvement in nutritional status of Children from 0-6 years, Adolescent Girls, Pregnant Women and Lactating Mothers in a time bound manner by leveraging technology, convergence and Jan Andolan.