Government releases target to curb malnutrition

Tags: National News

Union Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani on 28 July Released targets for curbing malnutrition in the country.

What are the targets?

• The aim of the target is to reduce stunting and under-nutrition (underweight prevalence) among children under 6 years by 2% per annum.

• Reducing low birth weight by 2% per year.

• Reducing anemia by 3% per year in children aged six to 59 months and in women and adolescent girls (15 to 49 years).

Other important facts

• As per the findings of the 2019-21 National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5), nutrition indicators for children under 5 have improved over NFHS-4 (2015-16).

• Stunting has reduced from 38.4% to 35.5%.

• Wasting has reduced from 21.0% to 19.3%.

• underweight prevalence has been down from 35.8% to 32.1%.

• Women (15-49 years) whose BMI is below normal has reduced from 22.9% in NFHS-4 to 18.7% in NFHS-5.

• In spite of this India remains one of the countries with the highest burden of malnutrition in the world. 

Status of states

• Meghalaya has the highest number of stunted children (46.5%), followed by Bihar (42.9%).

• Assam, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh have stunted children higher than the national average of 35.5%.

• Puducherry and Sikkim have the lowest percentage of stunted children.

• Maharashtra has the highest 25.6% wasted children followed by Gujarat 25.1%.

• Assam, Bihar, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Karnataka and West Bengal have a higher percentage of wasted children than the national average of 19.3%.

• Bihar has the highest number of underweight children (41%), followed by Gujarat (39.7%) and Jharkhand (39.4%).

• Assam, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh have percentages of underweight children higher than the national average of 32.1%.