National survey reports drop in malnutrition

There is a decrease in indicators of malnutrition among children, Minister of State for Women and Child Development Virendra Kumar told Rajya Sabha on Thursday while answering a question pertaining to malnutrition in India.

“As per the report of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS)–4 in 2015-16, 35.7 per cent children under five years of age are underweight and 38.4 per cent are stunted, indicating a reduction from the previous NFHS–3 conducted in 2005-06, which reported 42.5 per cent children under five years of age as underweight and 48 per cent stunted,” Kumar said.

Further, 22.9 per cent women (15-49 years of age) have chronic energy deficiency (BMI less than 18.5) — a decline from the previous NFHS-3 levels which reported 35.5 per cent women having chronic energy deficiency.

The important determinants of malnutrition include inadequate food, frequent infections, poverty, low access to health, education, and so on.

The approach to tackle the problem is multipronged. While the measures related to women and children are being undertaken by the Health Department through the network of Community Health Centres, Primary Health Centres and referral hospitals like AIIMS, the action related to bringing about improvement in the nutritional status is being undertaken by the ministry in the form of various schemes like Anganwadi Services, Scheme for Adolescent Girls and Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojna under the Umbrella Integrated Child Development Services Scheme as direct targeted interventions to address the problem of malnutrition in the country.

Recently, the Centre has announced the setting up of National Nutrition Mission (NNM) for improving the nutritional indicators of children and pregnant women and lactating mothers.