Facts:
- India has very high burden of malnutrition.
- According to National Family Health Survey-4 (NFHS-4), 38.% of India’s children aged less than 5 years are stunted (less height for their age), 21% are wasted (less weight for their height) and 35.7% are underweight.
- Between 2005-06 (when NFHS-3 was conducted) and 2015-16 (when NFHS-4 was conducted) the percentage of wasted children went up from 19.8% to 21% and percentage of severely wasted children went up from 6.4% to 7.5%.
- India also ranks low 100th out of 119 countries on 2017 Global Hunger Index (GHI) and was placed at high end of “serious” category in GHI severity scale, owing mainly to fact that one in every five children under age 5 is “wasted” (low weight for height).
Poshan Abhiyan:
- Government already has embarked on Rs 9000-crore to Poshan Abhiyan (National Nutrition Mission) to fight malnutrition.
- It was launched in March 2018.
- The mission targets to reduce stunting, under-nutrition, anaemia (among young children, women and adolescent girls) and reduce low birth weight.
- The target of mission is to bring down stunting among children up to age of six years from 38.4% to 25% by 2022.