New Delhi: The Government has approved setting up of new National Nutrition Mission to address the malnutrition problem in the country.The objective of the mission is to reduce 'Suposhit Bharat'-- free of stunting , wasting and anaemia by targeting reduction in the level of under-nutrition.The target is to reduce stunting and under-nutrition in children (0-6 years) at the rate of 2 per cent p a; reduce anaemia by 2 per cent among children (6-59 months) and 3 per cent in adolescent girls, according to official sources here.
As per the latest report of National Family Health Welfare Surveys, conducted by the Health and Family Welfare Ministry, 35.7 per cent children under 5 years of age are underweight, 38.4 per cent stunted and 58.4 pc are anaemic.The NNM would primarily be monitoring and reviewing body of nutrition centric schemes requiring convergent actions.The rollout plan of the scheme is 315 districts in 2017-18, 235 in 2018-19 and remaining in 2019-20. In the first phase, 22 districts of Maharashtra are covered.The total budget of the scheme is Rs 9,046.17 crore for three years from 2017-18.
The Women and Child Development Ministry has taken a number of initiatives, including setting up of state-of-the-art Quality Control Laboratories to monitor and improve the quality of supplementary nutrition provided under Andanwadi Services Scheme, Fortification of Food items provided under supplementary nutrition, pan India implementation of Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana, universalisation of scheme for adolescent girls in a phased manner and enhanced advocacy and visibility of nutrition related programmes.(UNI)