(a) whether the Government has taken note of the high prevalence rate of child wasting and child stunting across the country and if so, the details thereof;
(b) the details of measures being taken by the Government in this regard; and
(c) whether any study has been conducted to assess the status of the implementation of the schemes to ensure provision of proper nutrition to the children across the country is being implemented effectively, if so, the details thereof?
ANSWER
MINISTER OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT
(SHRIMATI SMRITI ZUBIN IRANI)
(a) As per the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) – 4 (2015-16) conducted by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, 38.4% children under 5 years of age are stunted and 21% are wasted.However, as per the Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey (CNNS) (2016-18), the prevalence of stunting among children is 34.7% and wasting 17.3%,which is an improvement from the levels reported in NFHS-4.
(b) The Government has accorded high priority to the issue of malnutrition and is implementing several schemes like Anganwadi Services, Scheme for Adolescent Girls and Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojna (PMMVY) under the Umbrella Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme as direct targeted interventions to address the problem of malnutrition among children in the country.
Further, the Government has set up POSHAN Abhiyaan on 18.12.2017. The goals of POSHAN Abhiyaan are to achieve improvement in nutritional status of Children from 0-6 years, Adolescent Girls, Pregnant Women and Lactating Mothers in a time bound manner with fixed targets as under:
S.No. Objective Target
1. Prevent and reduce stunting in children
(0- 6 years) @ 2% p.a.
2. Prevent and reduce under-nutrition (underweight prevalence) in children (0-6 years) @ 2% p.a.
3. Reduce the prevalence of anaemia among young Children(6-59 months) @ 3% p.a.
4. Reduce the prevalence of anaemia among Women and Adolescent Girls in the age group of 15-49 years @ 3% p.a.
5. Reduce Low Birth Weight (LBW) @ 2% p.a.
The Abhiyaan aims to reduce malnutrition in the country in a phased manner, through a lifecycle approach, by adopting a synergised and result oriented approach. The Abhiyaan has mechanisms for timely service delivery and a robust monitoring as well as intervention infrastructure. The major activities undertaken under this Abhiyaan are ensuring convergence with various other schemes/ programmes; Information Technology enabled Common Application Software for strengthening service delivery and interventions; Community Mobilization and Awareness Advocacy leading to Jan Andolan to educate the people on nutritional aspects; Capacity Building of Frontline Functionaries, incentivizing States/ UTs for achieving goals etc.
Further, the steps taken under the National Health Mission (NHM), a flagship programme of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, to address malnutrition inter alia include promotion of appropriate Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) practices, Anaemia Mukt Bharat, Iron and Folic Acid (IFA) supplementation, de-worming, promotion of iodized salt, Vitamin-A supplementation, Mission Indradhanush to ensure high coverage of vaccination in children, conducting intensified diarrhoea control fortnights to control childhood diarrhoea, management of sick severely malnourished children at Nutrition Rehabilitation Centers, monthly Village Health and Nutrition Days, Home Based Newborn Care (HBNC) and Home Based Young Child Care (HBYC) programmes, Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram, etc.
(c) The Schemes implemented by the Ministry for improvement in the nutritional status of children have in-built monitoring systems as under:
(i) The Anganwadi Services Scheme has an in-built monitoring system since its inception to track the physical progress of the scheme in respect of various input process,output and impact indicators through a standardized Management Information System (MIS).Further, in order to strengthen the performance of Anganwadi Services, Government has introduced monitoring and review mechanism at different levels (National/ State/ District/ Block and Anganwadi level).
Further, ICDS-Common Application Software has been rolled out to capture data on weight and height of children, opening of Anganwadi Centres, distribution of Take Home Ration, attendance of children for pre-school education at Anganwadi Centres. This data/information is available for monitoring on web-based ICDS-CAS dashboard to the supervisory staff at Block, District, State and National level.
(ii) Under the Scheme for Adolescent Girls, monitoring committees have been setup at all levels (National, State, District, Block and Village level) to take stock of the progress of the scheme as also to strengthen the coordination and convergence between concerned departments.
(iii) The Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY) is implemented through web-based Management and Information (MIS) Software, viz., Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana-Common Application Software (PMMVY-CAS) which is used as an effective tool for regular monitoring. Further, in order to expedite the implementation of the Scheme, regional review meeting-cum-workshops as well as national level workshops are conducted regularly for highest level monitoring. Monitoring is also undertaken through video conferences with all the States/UTs so as to ensure maximum participation by all officials at the State/UT level.
(iv) Regular reviews and meetings are conducted at National and State/UTs level to monitor the progress of implementation of POSHAN Abhiyaan. Field level checks are carried out by the Ministry &States/UTs. Further, there is a National Nutrition Resource Centre (NNRC) at National level and State Nutrition Resource Centre (SNRC) at State level to closely monitor the implementation of POSHAN Abhiyaan.
Additionally, National Council under the Chairmanship of Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog and the Executive Committee also monitor the progress of POSHAN Abhiyaan regularly.
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