Mid day meal scheme- Jharkhand which performed reasonably well on expenditure

indicators also did well serving 94 percent of MDM (2009) by quantity of foodgrains. Met 90% of
their meal targets (number of meals served). 99% of the allocated foodgrains were used up for
the meals and 100% of the number of meals set as target for 2018 were provided. Thus, there
has been a marked improvement in the implementation of mid-day meals by the Government of
Jharkhand.

Number of institutions covered- 39717 (2018) as compared to 40698(2011). No of children

covered- 2759668 (2018) as compared to 3231921 (2010) {Indiastat}. This presents a grim
picture though given that the number of beneficiaries has taken a dip indicating one of two
things- decrease in the allocated amount for mid-day meals by the government, or, increase in
the number of dropouts from schools- neither of which bodes well for the welfare scheme and
reach it wishes to have.

Sex ratio- 947 females per 1000 males (2011)

Anganwadi Schemes-
National Nutrition Mission (NNM)- POSHAN Abhiyan The National Nutrition Mission (NNM) is a
technology driven platform, which will monitor the growth of children as well as check the
pilferage of food rations provided at Anganwadis. The mission was approved by the
Government on 1st December 2017. Under the NNM, the ministries of women and child
development, health and family welfare, and water and sanitation will work together. The
mission will be considered as an apex body responsible for monitoring, supervising, fixing
targets and guiding nutrition related interventions across the ministries. NNM is meant to ensure
convergence between the WCD ministry and ministry for health and family welfare in fighting
against malnutrition. The National Nutrition Mission aims at attaining annual reduction rates
(ARRs) for levels of stunting, undernutrition, anaemia (among young children, women and
adolescent girls) and low birth weight babies at 2 per cent, 2 per cent, 3 per cent and 2 per cent
per annum respectively. It aims further to reduce stunting levels in India to 25 per cent by 2022.

The NNM strives to create synergy among different schemes, ensure better monitoring, issue
alerts for timely actions and encourage States/UTs to perform, guide and supervise the line of
ministries to achieve the targeted goals. The mission includes the following: 1. mapping of
various Schemes contributing towards addressing malnutrition 2. introducing a very robust
convergence mechanism 3. ICT based Real Time Monitoring system 4. incentivizing States/UTs
for meeting the targets 5. incentivizing Anganwadi Workers (AWWs) for using IT based tools 6.
eliminating registers used by AWWs 7. introducing measurement of height of children at the
Anganwadi Centres (AWCs) 8. Social Audits 9. Setting-up Nutrition Resource Centres, involving
masses through Jan Andolan for their participation for nutrition through various activities, among
others.

The mission intends to use technology at the core for real time monitoring of services delivered
by Anganwadi workers and frontline community health workers of ASHAs and auxiliary nurse
midwives. Further, it aims to promote use of smartphones by anganwadi workers and tablets by
their supervisors in mapping nutrition or growth levels of beneficiaries. The mission involves a
six-tier real-time reporting system, which includes an anganwadi worker, anganwadi supervisor,
child development project officer, a district official, an official appointed by the chief secretary at
the state level and officials at the centre. Additionally, mission entails the criteria of getting
children under 5 years registered under the Aadhaar number of his or her mother and have
made Aadhaar a mandatory requirement to avail benefits of the mission. Also financial
incentives are being provided to the anganwadi workers to help those who does not have
Aadhaar card yet in getting enrolled in Aadhaar. Further, it plans to provide group-based
incentives to anganwadi workers, ASHAs and ANMs.

Immunization-As per NFHS 4 data, there has been a 180% rise in complete immunization
(BCG, measles, and 3 doses each of polio and DPT) over the previous decade. There has also
been a 58% decline in immunizations being received at private hospitals indicating an improved
performance of the government facilities and better outreach. This is also indicated by an 18.3%
increase in the number of children between 12-23 months immunized in government facilities
over the past decade.

Malnutrition- Jharkhand is among the top five Indian states with malnourished--including
stunted, wasted and underweight--children, analysis of data from the ministry of health and
family welfare’s National Family Health Survey, 2015-16 (NFHS-4). Almost half (45.3%) of
Jharkhand’s children below the age of five are stunted, compared to the national average of
38.4%. Again, almost half (47.8%) of Jharkhand’s children are underweight, placing
Jharkhand behind only Bihar and Madhya Pradesh in child malnutrition levels, our analysis
shows. The infant mortality rate in Jharkhand is 44 deaths per 1,000 live births and under-
five mortality rate is 54 deaths per 1,000 live births, compared to national averages of 41
and 50, respectively, according to the NFHS.

Acute poverty, high illiteracy among women, underage marriages, lack of sanitation, lack of
awareness on nutrition, lack of access to nutritious and sufficient food, loss of habitat and
indigenous local food and lack of proper healthcare are major reasons for malnourishment
among children in Jharkhand. Despite being a mineral-rich state, Jharkhand has the highest
poverty rate in India--13 million out of 33 million population live below the poverty line,
according to a World Bank profile of the state.
A year ago, the Jharkhand government in collaboration with non-governmental organisation
(NGO) World Vision India ran a pilot project through the Integrated Child Development
Scheme (ICDS)--a central government scheme implemented by state governments--aimed
at reducing malnutrition in children in two blocks of Bokaro district. The project’s approach,
including door-to-door screening of children, training anganwadi workers and consistent
support and monitoring proved effective, as 61% of malnourished children in the two blocks
were cured.

In last ten years the percentage of women and men below normal BMI has reduced by about 27
and 38 per cent, respectively; the percentage of children who are stunted, wasted, severely
wasted and underweight has also decreased by about 9 per cent, 10 per cent, 3 per cent and 15
per cent, respectively and the percentage of anaemic children, women and men has decreased
by about 0.6 per cent, 6 per cent and 18 per cent, respectively (Jharkhand Economic Survey)