To reign in the high malnutrition rate among children, the Union cabinet on Thursday approved setting up of the National Nutrition Mission (NNM) to track if supplementary nutrition meant for pregnant and lactating mothers and children upto six years is being delivered to them.
India continues to have one of the highest percentages of malnourished children — 42% — in the world.
The government has approved Rs 9,046 crore for the mission for a three year period. Senior officials of the Union women and child development (WCD) ministry, which will implement NNM said that over 10 crore people will benefit from the programme.
“The National Nutrition Mission will monitor, supervise, fix targets and guide the nutrition related interventions across ministries,” a release said.
Surveillance of benefits will be done through Information and Communication Technology-based (ICT) real time monitoring systems.
The NNM will monitor various schemes contributing towards addressing malnutrition. Every year, the mission will target reduction of stunting, under-nutrition, anemia (among young children, women, adolescents) and reduce low birth weight.