29.4% children below 5 years are underweight: Maneka

The number of underweight children below five years of age has dropped to 29.4 per cent from 42.5 per cent, the government said on Thursday.

“As per the last National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-3 (2005-06) carried out by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, 42.5 per cent of the children below five years of age are underweight. However, the provisional India Fact Sheet of the Rapid Survey on Children (RSoC), commissioned by the Ministry of Women and Child Development with assistance from UNICEF India, indicates that the number of underweight children below five years of age has dipped to 29.4 per cent,” Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi said in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.

The maximum number of underweight children is from Bihar. “As per NFHS-3, the latest nationally representative data, 37 per cent children are underweight in Maharashtra, 42.4 per cent in Uttar Pradesh, 55.9 per cent in Bihar and 39.9 per cent in Rajasthan,” she said.

The Minister said malnutrition among children is a priority for the government and several schemes are being implemented to tackle it. The Ministry is implementing Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme, Rajiv Gandhi Scheme for Empowerment of Adolescent Girls (RGSEAG) named <g data-gr-id="21">SABLA</g> and Indira Gandhi <g data-gr-id="22">Matritva</g> Sahyog <g data-gr-id="23">Yojna</g> (IGMSY), she said.