ANSWER
MINISTER OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT
(SHRIMATI SMRITI ZUBIN IRANI)
(a) As per National Family Health Survey (NFHS)–4 conducted in 2015-16, 53.1% women in the age group of 15-49 years are anaemic, which is a reduction from the previous NFHS-3 conducted in 2005-06, which reported 55.3% being anaemic in this age group. There are multiple reasons which can cause anemia among women, most important among them inter alia include iron loss during menstruation, poor iron stores from infancy, iron loss due to post-partum haemorrhage, increased requirements during pregnancy, teenage pregnancy, repeated pregnancies with less than 2 years’ interval, etc.
(b) As per WHO report on worldwide prevalence of anaemia (1993-2005), in India the proportion of non-pregnant women of reproductive age (15-49.9 years) who are anaemic (Hb<12g/dl) is at 52. Other countries with higher or equal proportion of anaemic non-pregnant women of reproductive age are Angola (52.3), Benin (63.2), Bhutan (54.8), Cambodia (57.3), Chad (52.4), Congo (52.8), Ethiopia (52.3), Gambia (59.1%), Guinea-Bissau (52.9), Guyana (53.9) and Haiti (54.4). Moreover, as per
NFHS-3 (2005-2006) 55.2% non-pregnant women (age 15-49 years)were anaemic as compared to 53.1% as per NFHS-4 (2015-16), which shows a reduction.
(c) As per NFHS- 4, 38.4% children under 5 years of age are stunted and 58.5% have anemia. However, the levels have reduced further as reported under the Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey (2016-18), which reported 34.7% children under 5 years as stunted and 40.5% anaemic.The detailed State-wise prevalence of stunting and anemia among children under 5 years of age is annexed.
There are various causes for anemia among children, which inter alia include low iron stores at birth due to maternal anaemia, non-exclusive breastfeeding, poor complementary feeding practices, insufficient quantity of iron and iron enhancers in diet such as foods rich in Vitamin-C, increased iron requirements related to rapid growth and development during infancy and childhood, iron losses due to parasite load (e.g. malaria, intestinal worms), unsafe drinking water and inadequate personal hygiene and poor environmental sanitation, etc.
(d) Government has set up POSHAN Abhiyaan on 18.12.2017 for a three year time frame commencing from 2017-18 and to ensure a holistic approach with a goal to achieve improvement in nutritional status of Children from 0-6 years, Adolescent Girls, Pregnant Women and Lactating Mothers in a time bound manner. POSHAN Abhiyaan was rolled out in a phased manner, viz., 315 districts in the first year, 235 districts in the 2nd year and subsequently all the districts in the country including Andhra Pradesh.
(e) & (f) The salient features of the POSHAN Abhiyaan inter-alia include ensuring convergence with various programmes; incentivizing States/ Union Territories for achieving targeted goals; Information and Communication Technology enabled Integrated Child Development Services-Common Application Software; Evaluation by NITI Aayog; Setting up of National Nutrition Resource Centre (NNRC) at National level and State Nutrition Resource Centre (SNRC) in each State/Union Territory; Community Mobilization & Behaviour Change & Communication, Awareness Advocacy and Information Education Communication; Jan Andolan by educating people on nutritional aspects; Innovation; Strengthening human resource; measuring height and weight of children below 6 years of age for early detection of stunting and wasting; strengthening of Training & Capacity Building etc. POSHAN Abhiyaan and Anganwadi Services Scheme are mutually complementary and support each other.
(g) As per the report of State of the World’s Children, 2019, published by UNICEF, in Ghana, 19% children (0-4 years of age) are stunted and 5% are wasted and in Togo, 28% are stunted and 17.2% are wasted. As per the report of NFHS-4 conducted in 2015-16, in the State of Andhra Pradesh, 31.4% children under 5 years of age are stunted and 17.2% are wasted. As per the recent report of Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey (CNNS) (2016-18), in the State of Andhra Pradesh, 31.5% children are stunted and 17.1% are wasted.
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Annexure
Statement referred in reply to part (c) of Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 4351 for answer on 13.12.2019 raised by Shri N. Reddeppa, Shrimati Vanga Geetha Vishwanath
Prevalence of Stunting and Anaemia among children under 5 years of age as per NFHS-4 (2015-16) and CNNS (2016-18)
S. No. State
Stunting (%)
Anaemia (%)
NFHS-4 CNNS NFHS-4 CNNS
1 Andaman & Nicobar 23.3 - 49 -
2 Andhra Pradesh 31.4 31.5 58.6 39.6
3 Arunachal Pradesh 29.4 28 54.2 28.3
4 Assam 36.4 32.4 35.7 33.7
5 Bihar 48.3 42 63.5 43.7
6 Chandigarh 28.7 - 73.1 -
7 Chhattisgarh 37.6 35.4 41.6 40.8
8 Delhi 31.9 28.8 59.7 47
9 Dadra Nagar Haveli 41.7 - 84.6 -
10 Daman & Diu 23.4 - 73.8 -
11 Goa 20.1 19.6 48.3 22.1
12 Gujarat 38.5 39.1 62.6 38.2
13 Haryana 34 34.9 71.7 48.3
14 Himachal Pradesh 26.3 28.4 53.7 29.7
15 Jammu & Kashmir 27.4 15.5 54.5 27.1
16 Jharkhand 45.3 36.2 69.9 43.7
17 Karnataka 36.2 32.5 60.9 34.7
18 Kerala 19.7 20.5 35.7 12.5
19 Lakshadweep 27 - 53.6 -
20 Madhya Pradesh 42 39.5 68.9 53.5
21 Maharashtra 34.4 34.1 53.8 41.6
22 Manipur 28.9 28.9 23.9 10
23 Meghalaya 43.8 40.4 48 32.9
24 Mizoram 28.1 27.4 19.3 24.4
25 Nagaland 28.6 26.2 26.4 8
26 Odisha 34.1 29.1 44.6 37.2
27 Punjab 25.7 24.3 56.6 39.8
28 Puducherry 23.7 - 44.9 -
29 Rajasthan 39.1 36.8 60.3 32.4
30 Sikkim 29.6 21.8 55.1 33
31 Tamil Nadu 27.1 19.7 50.7 27.3
32 Telangana 28.1 29.3 60.7 37.8
33 Tripura 24.3 31.9 48.3 33
34 Uttar Pradesh 46.3 38.8 63.2 43
35 Uttarakhand 33.5 29.9 59.8 32.4
36 West Bengal 32.5 25.3 54.2 45.7
India 38.4 34.7 58.5 40.5
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