(a) whether the World Health Organisation (WHO) has proposed new norms to curb the
problem of malnutrition;
(b) if so, the details thereof;
(c) whether the Government has accepted the norms as prescribed by the WHO; and
(d) if so, the difference between the norms prescribed by WHO and Indian norms?
MINISTER OF STATE OF THE MINISTRY OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT(SHRIMATl KRISHNA TIRATH)
(a)to (d): There is no new criteria recommended by WHO to curb the problem of malnutrition.
The WHO has proposed new Child Growth Standards to identify malnutrition in children.
These Standards have been adopted by Government of India w.e.f. 15.8.2008 following the
recommendations of the National Workshop on the Adoption of new WHO Child Growth Standards
organized jointly by Ministry of Women and Child Development and the Ministry of Health and
Family Welfare with WHO and UNICEF collaboration on 8-9lh February, 2007 at New Delhi.
The WHO Child Growth Standards are better than the earlier NCHS standards as they are based
on the growth of breastfed children (which is the norm for healthy growth) from six countries
and show that all children grow equally given the right Infant and Young child feeding,
appropriate feeding practices, health and nutrition inputs & environment. The previous
NCHS standards are based on growth of children receiving mixed feeding i.e. artificially
fed as well as breastfed and were based on children in one country only (USA).