Question : National Survey on Malnutrition

(a) whether the Government has conducted any national survey to ascertain the exact number of children suffering from malnutrition across the country;
(b) if so, the details and outcome thereof;
(c) the present criteria of identifying number of children affected due to malnutrition in a particular district of the country;
(d) whether the Government is also aware that in some of the neighbouring countries regular audits are being conducted to find out the exact number of children affected by malnutrition; and
(e) if so, the steps the Government proposes to take to conduct regular audit of malnutrition cases in the country?

MINISTER OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT
(SHRIMATI MANEKA SANJAY GANDHI)

(a) &(b) Ministry of Health and Family Welfare periodically conducts National Family Health Surveys, which inter alia measures the nutritional indicators in the country in order to assess the prevalence of malnutrition. As per the recent report of National Family Health Survey (NFHS) – 4 conducted by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in 2015-16, 35.7% children under 5 years of age are underweight, 38.4% are stunted and 21% are wasted indicating a reduction from the previous NFHS – 3 conducted in 2005-06, which reported 42.5% children under 5 years of age as underweight, 48% stunted and 19.8% wasted.

(c) To measure nutritional status of children, WHO growth charts are used at the Anganwadi Centers, using weight-to-age (underweight) as an indicator under Integrated Child Development Services Scheme (ICDS) of Ministry of Women and Child Development.

(d) & (e) No Madam. Data on prevalence of malnutrition in the country is captured under the National Family Health Surveys (NFHS) periodically conducted by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Under NFHS, data is collected from a nationally representative sample of population and the results are then statistically analysed. The latest round of NFHS was conducted in 2015-16.
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