Ministry of Women and Child Development

“Malnutrition among Children”

Posted On: 16 MAR 2022 4:48PM by PIB Delhi

The estimated number of underweight, malnourished and severely malnourished children under 5 years of age is obtained under National Family Health Survey (NFHS) conducted by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare. As per the recent report of NFHS-5 (2019-21), the nutrition indicators for children under 5 years have improved as compared with NFHS-4 (2015-16). Stunting has reduced from 38.4% to 35.5%, Wasting has reduced from 21.0% to 19.3% and Underweight prevalence has reduced from 35.8% to 32.1%.

The detailed list of districts having highest and lowest prevalence of malnutrition among children in the country as per NFHS 5 is at Annexure I.

State/UT wise details of malnutrition among children under 5 years as per NFHS 5 is at Annexure II.

Government has accorded high priority to the issue of malnutrition and is implementing several schemes like Anganwadi Services, Scheme for Adolescent Girls and Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY) under the Umbrella Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme as direct targeted interventions to address the problem of malnutrition in the country. Children with Severe Acute Malnutrition are treated at the Nutrition Rehabilitation Centres established by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Further, POSHAN Abhiyaan launched on 8th March 2018, aims to reduce malnutrition in the country by adopting a synergised and result oriented approach.

Mission Poshan 2.0, an integrated nutrition support programme has been announced in budget 2021-2022 for all States/UTs. It seeks to strengthen nutritional content, delivery, outreach and outcomes with focus on developing practices that nurture health, wellness and immunity to disease and malnutrition. Steps have been taken to improve nutritional quality and testing in accredited labs, strengthen delivery and leverage technology under Poshan Tracker to improve governance. States/UTs have been advised to promote use of AYUSH systems for prevention of malnutrition and related diseases. A programme to support development of Poshan Vatikas at Anganwadi Centres to meet dietary diversity gap leveraging traditional knowledge in nutritional practices has also been taken up. Guidelines were issued for transparency and accountability in delivery of supplementary nutrition and to track nutritional outcomes on 13.01.2021.

 

Annexure I

Top 10 and Bottom 10 Districts in Stunting

State

District

Children under 5 years who are stunted (height-for-age) (%)

Top 10 Districts

Odisha

Jagatsinghapur

13.2

Odisha

Puri

13.8

Arunachal Pradesh

Lower Dibang Valley

14.3

Punjab

Rupnagar

15.1

Kerala

Kollam

15.5

Manipur

Bishnupur

15.5

Haryana

Jhajjar

15.6

Karnataka

Ramanagara

15.6

Manipur

Imphal West

15.6

Arunachal Pradesh

Longding

15.8

Bottom 10 Districts

Jharkhand

Pashchimi Singhbhum

60.6

Meghalaya

West Khasi Hills

59

Karnataka

Yadgir

57.6

Gujarat

Dahod

55.3

Bihar

Sitamarhi

54.2

Chhattisgarh

Bijapur

53.8

Bihar

Sheikhpura

53.6

Uttar Pradesh

Bahraich

52.1

Uttar Pradesh

Budaun

51.8

Uttar Pradesh

Sambhal

51.6

 

Top 10 and Bottom 10 Districts in Wasting

State

District

Children under 5 years who are wasted (weight-for-height) (%)

Top 10 Districts

Sikkim

North District

4.5

Punjab

Ludhiana

5.9

Haryana

Bhiwani

6

NCT of Delhi

New Delhi

6.8

Tamil Nadu

Coimbatore

7

Punjab

Fatehgarh Sahib

7.1

Arunachal Pradesh

Tawang

7.1

Mizoram

Aizawl

7.3

Puducherry

Mahe

7.3

Mizoram

Mamit

7.4

Bottom 10 (Wasting)

Assam

Karimganj

48

Gujarat

The Dangs

40.9

Maharashtra

Dhule

38.9

Maharashtra

Chandrapur

38.5

Bihar

Arwal

36.8

Bihar

Jehanabad

36.6

Gujarat

Tapi

36.6

Telangana

KomaramBheem Asifabad

35.7

Gujarat

Panchmahal

35.7

Bihar

Sheohar

35.4

 

Top 10 and Bottom 10 Districts in Underweight

State

District

Children under 5 years who are underweight (weight-for-age) (%)

Top 10 Districts

Sikkim

South District

7.2

Arunachal Pradesh

Lower Subansiri

8.1

Arunachal Pradesh

Siang

8.8

Arunachal Pradesh

Tawang

9

Mizoram

Aizawl

9.6

Haryana

Jhajjar

9.7

Arunachal Pradesh

Lower Dibang Valley

9.7

Manipur

Churachandpur

9.8

Manipur

Imphal West

10.2

Arunachal Pradesh

East Siang

10.3

Bottom 10 Districts

Jharkhand

Pashchimi Singhbhum

62.4

Maharashtra

Nandurbar

57.2

Gujarat

The Dangs

53.1

Gujarat

Dahod

53

Assam

Karimganj

52.9

Bihar

Arwal

52.9

Gujarat

Narmada

52.8

Telangana

Adilabad

52

Gujarat

Panchmahal

51.9

Gujarat

Tapi

51.8

 

Annexure II

State/UT wise prevalence of Stunting, Wasting and Underweight among children under 5 years as per NFHS 5 survey

State/UT

Children under 5 years who are stunted (height-for-age) (%)

Children under 5 years who are wasted (weight-for-height) (%)

Children under 5 years who are underweight (weight-for-age) (%)

Andaman & Nicobar Islands

22.5

16

23.7

Andhra Pradesh

31.2

16.1

29.6

Assam

35.3

21.7

32.8

Bihar

42.9

22.9

41

Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu

39.4

21.6

38.7

Goa

25.8

19.1

24

Gujarat

39

25.1

39.7

Himachal Pradesh

30.8

17.4

25.5

Jammu & Kashmir

26.9

19

21

Karnataka

35.4

19.5

32.9

Kerala

23.4

15.8

19.7

Lakshadweep

32

17.4

25.8

Ladakh

30.5

17.5

20.4

Maharashtra

35.2

25.6

36.1

Meghalaya

46.5

12.1

26.6

Manipur

23.4

9.9

13.3

Mizoram

28.9

9.8

12.7

Nagaland

32.7

19.1

26.9

Sikkim

22.3

13.7

13.1

Telangana

33.1

21.7

31.8

Tripura

32.3

18.2

25.6

West Bengal

33.8

20.3

32.2

Arunachal Pradesh

28

13.1

15.4

Chhattisgarh

34.6

18.9

31.3

Haryana

27.5

11.5

21.5

Jharkhand

39.6

22.4

39.4

Madhya Pradesh

35.7

19

33

Odisha

31

18.1

29.7

Punjab

24.5

10.6

16.9

Rajasthan

31.8

16.8

27.6

Tamil Nadu

25

14.6

22

Uttar Pradesh

39.7

17.3

32.1

Uttarakhand

27

13.2

21

Chandigarh

25.3

8.4

20.6

Delhi

30.9

11.2

21.8

Puducherry

20

12.4

15.3

 

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

 

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