The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) adopted during the U.N. Millennium Summit, 2000 by 189 countries including India consists of eight goals which are sought to be achieved during the period 1990 to 2015.
The Millennium Development Goal (MDG) -1 is regarding Eradication of Extreme Poverty and Hunger, which have 2 targets namely->
(i) Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the percentage of population below the National Poverty Line and
(ii) Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger. The indicator for measuring target two is the prevalence of underweight children under three years of age. Thus from the estimated 52% in 1990, the proportion of underweight children below 3 years is required to be reduced to 26% by 2015.
The Government of India has accorded high priority to the issue of malnutrition in the country and is implementing several schemes/programmes of different Ministries/Departments through States Government/UT Administrations including Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
The schemes/programmes include the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), Mid-Day Meal Scheme (MDM), Rajiv Gandhi Schemes for Empowerment of Adolescent Girls (RGSEAG) namely SABLA, Indira Gandhi Matritva Sahyog Yojna (IGMSY) as direct targeted interventions. Besides, indirect Multi-sectoral interventions include Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS), National Horticulture Mission, National Food Security Mission, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan, National Rural Drinking Water Programme etc.
The measures taken by the Government together with other sectoral initiatives to achieve the target, the prevalence of underweight children under three years of agewould bring a visible impact & improve the nutritional status of the country.
For undernutrition, so far, NFHS-3 data is the only information available at the national level and the prevalence of underweight children below 5 years as per NFHS-3, 2005-06, State wise/UTs including Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh is as mentioned below.
S.No
|
State
|
children (below 5 yrs of age)
|
% Underweight
| ||
1
|
Madhya Pradesh
|
60.0
|
2
|
Bihar
|
55.9
|
3
|
Jharkhand
|
56.5
|
4
|
Meghalaya
|
48.8
|
5
|
Chhattisgarh
|
47.1
|
6
|
Gujarat
|
44.6
|
7
|
Uttar Pradesh
|
42.4
|
8
|
Orissa
|
40.7
|
9
|
Rajasthan
|
39.9
|
10
|
Tripura
|
39.6
|
11
|
Haryana
|
39.6
|
12
|
West Bengal
|
38.7
|
13
|
Uttrakhand
|
38.0
|
14
|
Karnataka
|
37.6
|
15
|
Maharashtra
|
37.0
|
16
|
Himachal Pradesh
|
36.5
|
17
|
Assam
|
36.4
|
18
|
Andhra Pradesh
|
32.5
|
19
|
Arunachal Pradesh
|
32.5
|
20
|
Tamil Nadu
|
29.8
|
21
|
Delhi
|
26.1
|
22
|
J&K
|
25.6
|
23
|
Nagaland
|
25.2
|
24
|
Goa
|
25.0
|
25
|
Punjab
|
24.9
|
26
|
Kerala
|
22.9
|
27
|
Manipur
|
22.1
|
28
|
Mizoram
|
19.9
|
29
|
Sikkim
|
19.7
|
India
|
42.5
|
However, some survey, conducted by State/NGOs show a declining trend in under nutrition such as the survey on nutrition status of under-five year rural children in Madhya Pradesh State undertaken by National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) in 2010.The study in M.P shows underweight in rural children below 5 years has declined from 62.7% (NFHS-3, 2005-06) to 51.9% (M.P survey).
The Government of Chhattisgarh has carried out a study viz. Vajan Tyohar in the month of June 2012. On a fixed date weighing of all the children was done at AWC. This was done as a primary study to ascertain nutrition status of children at fixed level. Underweight in children were 30.78% in urban, 40.94% in rural as compared to 31.3% in urban and 50.2% in rural as per the NFHS-3, 2005-06.
Besides, the Hungama survey by an NGO conducted in 112 districts indicates a reduction in the prevalence of child underweight which has decreased from 53 per cent (DLHS, 2004) to 42 per cent representing 20.3 per cent decrease over a period of 7 years.
Further, monitoring data of ICDS currently indicated 29.46% of underweight children as on September, 2013.
All-India trend of the proportion of underweight children below 3 years of age shows that underweight has declined by 3 percentage points during 1998-99 to 2005-06 , from about 43 percent to about 40 percent (as per the National Family Health Survey, 2005-06). At this historical rate of decline the proportion of underweight children is expected to come down to 33% by 2015.
This was stated by Smt. Krishna Tirath, Minister for Women and Child Development, in a written reply to the Lok Sabha today.
