Malnutrition is not a direct cause of death among children. However, it can increase morbidity and mortality by reducing resistance to infections. Malnourished children are more vulnerable to any infection than normal children. The overall under five mortality rate has reduced from 74.3 (NFHS-3) to 49.7 (NFHS-4) deaths per thousand live births. 

The Government has accorded high priority to the issue of malnutrition and is implementing several schemes/programmes through States/UTs to address various aspects related to nutrition. This Ministry implements Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana, Anganwadi Services and Scheme for Adolescent Girls under the Umbrella Integrated Child Development Services Scheme (ICDS) as direct targeted interventions to address the problem of malnutrition among Pregnant Women and Lactating Mothers and Children (0-6Years of age) in the country.

Further, the Government has set up POSHAN Abhiyaan on 18.12.2017. The goals of POSHAN Abhiyaan are to achieve improvement in nutritional status of Children from 0-6 years, Adolescent Girls, Pregnant Women and Lactating Mothers in a time bound manner. The major activities undertaken under this Abhiyaan are ensuring convergence with various other programmes; Information Technology enabled Common Application Software for strengthening service delivery and interventions; Community Mobilization and Awareness Advocacy leading to Jan Andolan to educate the people on nutritional aspects; Capacity Building of Frontline Functionaries, incentivizing States/ UTs for achieving goals etc.

This information was given in a written reply by the Union Minister of Women and Child Development, Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani in Rajya Sabha today.

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APS/SG/RC