Question : Diseases among Children

Will the Minister of HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE be pleased to state:

(a) whether Government in collaboration with UNICEF has recently conducted the first-ever comprehensive National Nutrition Survey, if so, the details thereof;

(b) whether as per the survey around 10 per cent of children in the age group of 5 to 9 years and adolescents in the age group 10 to 19 years are pre-diabetic, 5 per cent of them were overweight and 5 per cent suffered from blood pressure;

(c) if so, the details thereof and the steps taken by the Government in this regard;

(d) whether the Government is aware that deficiency in vitamins and other essential nutrients, caused by poor, unhealthy diets, are the main risk factors for several diseases among children in India; and

(e) if so, the details thereof and the steps being taken to address the above issues by the Government?

ANSWER
THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND
FAMILY WELFARE
(SHRI ASHWINI KUMAR CHOUBEY)
(a): The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), Government of India in collaboration with UNICEF has conducted first ever Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey (CNNS), from 2016-18 in 30 States. The survey covered 1.12 lakh children and adoloscents in the age of 0-19 years and biological sample of 51 thousand children and adolescents were also collected. The objective of the survey was to assess the levels of under-nutrition, micronutrient level and Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs) and the associated risk factors in the children and adolescents.

(b) & (c): As per survey report the prevalence of diabetes was low (~1%) among both children (1.2 %) and adolescents (0.7%). However, 10.3% of school-age children (5-9 years) and 10.4% of adolescents (10-19 years) were found as pre-diabetic based on fasting plasma glucose and HbA1c levels in the blood. 3.7% of children (5-9 years) and 4.8 % adolescents (10 – 19 years) were overweight or obese and 4.9% adolescents were identified with hypertension.
In order to prevent and control major Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs) the National Programme for Prevention of Control of Cancer, Diabetes, Cardiovascular Diseases and Stroke is being implemented in all the States/UTs.
Under NPCDCS, NCD cell are being established at National, State and District levels for programme management, and NCD clinics are being set up at District and block levels, to provide services for early diagnosis, treatment and follow-up for common NCDs. Health promotion through behavior change with involvement of community, civil society, community based organization, schools and media etc is an important activity.
The role of physical activities in health promotion and prevention of NCDs is also being adopted as key strategy. Fit India Movement has been initiated by the Hon’ble PM where various physical activities and events to increase awareness on fitness will be carried out in the country.
(d) & (e): Yes Sir, the Government is aware that nutritionally poor, unhealthy diets contributes to the risk factors for several diseases among children and various interventions are as below:
• The Government of India has launched POSHAN (Prime Minister Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nourishment) Abhiyaan, to address malnutrition in India through convergence, behaviour change, IEC advocacy, training and capacity building, use of technology i.e. Common Application Software (CAS), innovations and demand generation. POSHAN Abhiyaan focuses on educating families on the need for nutrition and motivating them on adopting these into their behaviour. The promotion of locally available nutritious food through various community based events (CBEs), exhibitions, rallies, workshops and meetings is one of the strategy under the POSHAN Abhiyaan.
• Ministry of Health and family Welfare has also initiated various advocacy and awareness campaigns including the “Eat Right India” Campaign, which is built on the two broad pillars of ''Eat Healthy'' and ''Eat Safe''. This aims to engage, excite and enable citizens to improve their health and wellbeing.
• Village Health Sanitation and Nutrition Day (VHSND) platform is being used for creating community awareness on importance of balanced and healthy diet, and bringing desired changes in the dietary practices through group counselling sessions.
• The Government is also promoting use of fortified wheat flour, fortified rice, fortified oil and double fortified salt in public funded supplementary nutrition programmes.
• Government of India is also implementing various health and nutrition interventions under National Health Mission (NHM) these are:
? Early initiation and exclusive breastfeeding for first six months and appropriate Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) practices are promoted under Mothers’ Absolute Affection (MAA) in convergence with Ministry of Women and Child Development.
? Vitamin A supplementation (VAS) for children till the age of 5 years.
? ‘Anemia Mukt Bharat (AMB)’ for supplementation and treatment of anaemia in children, adolescents, pregnant and lactating women, and women of reproductive age group in programme mode through life cycle approach. This involves, bi-weekly IFA syrup supplementation to children 6 – 59 months, weekly IFA tablet supplementation to children 5 – 10 years and adolescents 10 – 19 years, and IFA tablets to pregnant and lactating women.
• Under “Rastriya Bal Swasthya Karyakaram” (RBSK) children of 0 to 18 years of age are screened for selected health conditions classified into 4Ds - Diseases, Deficiencies, Defects and Developmental delay including screening for Severe Acute Mal-nutrition and provides free referral and treatment facilities for identified children.