Question : Nutritional Deficiency Among Women and Children

(a) Whether a large number of women and children are affected by nutritional deficiency in the North-Eastern region of the country and if so, the details thereof along with the action taken by the Government to address the issue;

(b) whether the Government has launched special schemes for development of women and children in North-Eastern Region and if so, the details thereof;

(c) whether the Government has received financial help from United Nations or UNESCO for the purpose during the last three years and if so, the details thereof;

(d) the details of funds released to the State of Assam for development of women and children under various schemes during the last three years; and

(e) whether the Government has formulated/set up any system for monitoring the execution of these schemes to address the nutritional deficiency in the region and if so, the details thereof?

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


(a) to (e): A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.


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Statement referred to in reply to Part (a) to (e) of Lok Sabha Starred Question No. 117 for 22.12.2017 by Shri Ram Prasad Sarmah regarding Nutritional Deficiency Among Women and Children

(a) & (b) As per the report of National Family Health Survey (NFHS) – 4, 2015-16, conducted by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, 35.7% children under 5 years of age are underweight, 38.4% are stunted and 58.4% are anemic. Among women (15-49 years), 22.9% have chronic energy deficiency and 53% are anaemic. The State-wise data on prevalence of nutritional deficiencies among women and children including the North-Eastern region of the country are at Annexure-I.

The Ministry is implementing several schemes and programs like Anganwadi Services, Scheme for Adolescent Girls and Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana under the Umbrella Integrated Child Development Services Scheme as direct targeted interventions to address the problem of malnutrition in the country. Recently, National Nutrition Mission has been set up to act as an apex body for monitoring and guiding the nutrition related issues of various government schemes.All these schemes address one or other aspects related to nutrition and have the potential to improve nutritional outcomes in the country including the North-Eastern Region of the country.

For eight North-Eastern States (Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim), funds are released as per the cost sharing ratio between the Centre and the State of 90:10 for all the above-mentioned schemes of the Ministry as against 60:40 for other States/UTs.

(c) No Madam. However, technical assistance is provided by UNICEF as per their Country Programme Action Plan.

(d) The funds released for the State of Assam for development of women and children under various schemes of the Ministry during the last three years is as under:
Scheme 2014-15
(Rupees in Lakh) 2015-16
(Rupees in Lakh) 2016-17
(Rupees in Lakh)
Anganwadi Services (under Umbrella ICDS) – Supplementary Nutrition Component 671190.92 804872.78 680065.05
Scheme for Adolescent Girls 1042.63 817.44 1356.94
Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana 1,744.74 872.38 -

(e) Besides the in-built five-tier monitoring system, the newly set up National Nutrition Mission has ICT-based real-time monitoring system through Common Application Software (CAS). The software also provides a template for its integration with Mother and Child Tracking System/Reproductive Child Health portal for facilitating auto-population of information across the software of MWCD and MoHFW. To digitize and computerize the data generated at the AWCs, Tablets and Smart Phones and other IT related equipment are provided to Lady Supervisers and Anganwadi worker.

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