Parliament Question: Nutritional status of Women and Children

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3309 TO BE ANSWERED ON 07.08.2026 NUTRITIONAL STATUS OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN 3309. SHRI ZIA UR REHMAN: Will the Minister of WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT be pleased to state: (a) whether the Government has assessed the nutritional status of children and pregnant women under POSHAN Abhiyaan, if so, the details thereof; (b) the details of malnutrition cases reported during the last three years, State-wise; and (c) the details of the corrective measures being taken to improve nutrition and strengthen Anganwadi services? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT (SHRIMATI SAVITRI THAKUR) (a) to (c): Under the Mission Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 (Mission Poshan 2.0), the ‘Poshan Tracker’ digital application has been rolled out by Ministry of Women and Child Development (MoWCD) as an ICT based governance tool for continuous monitoring and tracking of all services being provided to the beneficiaries registered at Anganwadi Centres (AWCs). Technology under Poshan Tracker is being leveraged for dynamic identification of stunting, wasting, under-weight prevalence among children under 5 years of age group. The State-wise and year-wise information on nutrition indicators among children under 5 years is available at Poshan Tracker dashboard: https://www.poshantracker.in/statistics. Various measures have been taken by the MoWCD to improve nutritional outcomes and strengthen Anganwadi services: • Under Mission Poshan 2.0, two lakh Anganwadi Centres (AWCs) located in Government buildings have been approved to be upgraded as Saksham Anganwadis for delivery of improved nutrition and for ECCE activities. These Saksham Anganwadis are equipped with better infrastructure such as LED screens, water filtration system, Poshan Vatika, Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) material and Building as Learning Aid (BaLA) paintings.• Supplementary Nutrition in the form of Hot cooked meal (HCM) and Take-Home Ration (THR) is provided to Children (6 months to 6 years), Pregnant Women, Lactating Mothers and Adolescent Girls in accordance with the nutrition norms contained in Schedule-II of the National Food Security Act, 2013. Additional Nutrition is also provided to Severely Acute Malnourished (SAM) children in form of Take- Home Ration (THR). • MoWCD and Ministry of Health & Family Welfare have jointly released the Protocol for Management of Malnutrition in Children to prevent and treat severely acute malnutrition in children and for reducing associated morbidity and mortality. • Mission Poshan 2.0 empowers the frontline functionaries by providing them with smartphones along with data recharge facility. Further, there is a provision of Growth Monitoring Devices (GMDs) as Infantometer, Stadiometer, Weighing Scale-Infant and Weighing Scale-Mother & Child at each Anganwadi Centre (AWC) for the regular growth monitoring of registered beneficiaries. • Anganwadi Workers (AWWs) conduct structured home visits to support pregnant women, lactating mothers, and young children (0-3 years) through nutrition counselling, caregiving guidance, and promotion of early childhood development. • One of the major activities undertaken is Community Mobilization and Awareness Advocacy in the form of Jan Andolans (Poshan Maah and Poshan Pakhwada celebrated in the months of September and March-April respectively) to educate people on nutritional aspects as adoption of good nutrition habit requires sustained efforts for behavioural change. • Poshan Vatikas are set up under Mission Poshan 2.0 at Anganwadi Centers across the country to encourage consumption of local and seasonal fruits, vegetables, thereby improving diet-diversity and increase the intake of micronutrients. *****