Union Minister for Women and Child Development Smriti Irani on Thursday told the Rajya Sabha that there are over 9 lakh children with severe malnutrition in the country as of November 30 last year.
Responding to a question from MP Sanjay Singh, in a written reply, Irani said that according to the ICDS-RRS portal, as on November 30, 2020, there are 9,27,606 severely acute malnourished (SAM) children that have been identified by the ministry. These children range between the ages of 6 months to 6 years.
Irani further said that there are 3,98,359 children suffering from SAM in Uttar Pradesh alone.
In response to another question on whether incidence of malnutrition among children had increased, Irani said, “As reported under NFHS-5, nutritional status has improved in many states despite the short interval of four years between the survey rounds…”