Parliament Question: Status of child malnutrition

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT RAJYA SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2239 TO BE ANSWERED ON 11.03.2026 STATUS OF CHILD MALNUTRITION 2239.SMT. RAJANI ASHOKRAO PATIL: Will the Minister of Women and Child Development be pleased to state: (a) whether Government has reviewed the current status of child malnutrition in the country; (b) the latest available data on stunting, wasting, underweight and micronutrient deficiencies among children under five years of age, State-wise; (c) the States and districts with the highest prevalence of child malnutrition; (d) the performance of flagship programmes such as the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) and POSHAN Abhiyaan in improving nutrition outcomes, coverage and service delivery; and (e) the reasons why key nutrition indicators continue to remain alarming despite sustained budgetary allocations and interventions and the steps proposed to accelerate reduction of child malnutrition? ANSWER MINISTER OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT (SHRIMATI ANNPURNA DEVI) (a) to (e): The Ministry of Women and Child Development (MoWCD) has launched Poshan Tracker Application in 2021 that collects near real time data of malnutrition indicators and other defined indicators of Mission Poshan 2.0. Data on indicators of malnutrition is also collected under National Family Health Survey (NFHS) by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare from time to time. Both the datasets have shown improvement in the malnutrition indicators in the country over the years. The progress of these indicators from various rounds of NFHS as well as from Poshan Tracker is given below: NFHS Survey Stunting % Underweight % Wasting % NFHS-1 (1992-93)* 52 53.4 17.5 NFHS-2 (1998-99)** 45.5 47 15.5NFHS-3 (2005-06)*** 48.0 42.5 19.8 NFHS-4 (2015-16)*** 38.4 35.8 21.0 NFHS-5 (2019-21)*** 35.5 32.1 19.3 * Under 4 years ** Under 3 years *** Under 5 years The progress of these indicators among children under five, State-wise and district wise, is available on Poshan Tracker Dashboard at: https://www.poshantracker.in/statistics As per NFHS-5(2019-2021), the prevalence of anemia, one of the micronutrient deficiencies among children under the age of 5 years and women in the age of 15-49 years is 67.1% and 57%, respectively. The State-wise data on anemia from NFHS-5 is available at: https://dhsprogram.com/pubs/pdf/FR375/FR375.pdf Further, an outcome-based evaluation study of Mission Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 was conducted by NITI Aayog in 2025. As per the study, evidence from institutional assessments and household surveys indicate that digitalization through Poshan Tracker App has a multi-dimensional impact on nutrition monitoring, Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE), beneficiary authentication, and service delivery efficiency. The Report also highlighted Poshan Tracker as a significant shift from manual, paper-based systems to a technology-enabled governance framework under the Supplementary Nutrition Programme (SNP). As per the report, Poshan Tracker, introduced by MoWCD, has become the cornerstone for digital monitoring of beneficiaries, inventory and service delivery at Anganwadi Centres (AWCs). NITI Aayog had also conducted two third party, impact assessments of Poshan Abhiyaan in 2020 and in 2025 which have found the relevance of Poshan Abhiyaan to be satisfactory for tackling malnutrition in the country. ****