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Press Information Bureau

Government of India
Ministry of Women and Child Development
12- March- 2020 17:15 IST
Malnutrition among Women

As per the recent report of National Family Health Survey (NFHS) – 4 conducted by
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in 2015-16, 22.9% women (15-49 years of age) are
underweight (BMI less than 18.5 kg/m2). The five States having highest percentage of
malnutrition among women are Jharkhand (31.5%), Bihar (30.4%), Dadra and Nagar Haveli
(28.7%), Madhya Pradesh (28.4%), Gujarat (27.2%) and Rajasthan (27%).

The Government has accorded high priority to the issue of malnutrition and is making
serious efforts to address this issue. Several schemes with direct as well as indirect
interventions are being implemented across the country. Schemes like Anganwadi
Services, Scheme for Adolescent Girls and Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojna (PMMVY)
under the Umbrella Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme are direct
targeted interventions being implemented to address the problem of malnutrition among
women and children in the country.

Anganwadi Services Scheme aims to improve the nutritional and health status of
pregnant women & lactating mothers and reduce the incidence of mortality, morbidity
and malnutrition. Under the Scheme, pregnant women and lactating mothers are
provided supplementary nutrition, nutrition and health education, immunization, health
check-up and referral services.

Scheme for Adolescent Girls is implemented for out-of-school adolescent girls in the age
group of 11-14 years for self-development and empowerment of adolescent girls;
improvement of nutritional and health status; to promote awareness about health, hygiene
& nutrition; support to out-of-school Adolescent Girls for successful transition back to
formal schooling or bridge learning/skill training; upgrade their home-based skills and life
skills.

Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY) is implemented with an aim to provide
cash incentive to improve health seeking behaviour amongst the Pregnant Women &
Lactating Mothers (PW&LM) and to compensate partially the wage loss in terms of cash
incentive so that the woman can take adequate rest before and after delivery of the first
child.
 

Government has set up POSHAN Abhiyaan on 18.12.2017. One of the goals of POSHAN
Abhiyaan is to achieve improvement in nutritional status of Adolescent Girls, Pregnant
Women and Lactating Mothers in a time bound manner.

Further, to address malnutrition among women, the steps taken under the National
Health Mission (NHM), a flagship programme of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare,
are Anaemia Mukt Bharat; organization of Monthly Village Health, Sanitation and
Nutrition days for provision of maternal and child health services and creating
awareness on maternal and child care; Iron and Folic Acid (IFA) supplementation; calcium
supplementation and promotion of iodized salt.

This information was given by the Minister of Women and Child Development, Smriti
Zubin Irani, in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today.

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MM/SB