“Malnutrition among Children”

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

The estimated number of underweight, malnourished and severely malnourished children under 5 years of age is obtained under the 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 the 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.

The 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 a 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 the prevention of malnutrition and related diseases. A programme to support the development of Poshan Vatikas at Anganwadi Centres to meet the dietary diversity gap leveraging traditional knowledge in nutritional practices has also been taken up. Guidelines were issued for transparency and accountability in the 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