The Centre will soon come out with new guidelines on supplementary nutrition which will supersede all existing guidelines, Maneka Gandhi, Minister for Women and Child Development, said here on Tuesday.

Similarly, a separate self-contained protocol for severely and acutely malnourished (SAM) children will also be issued shortly, she added.

“The focus of the entire (Integrated Child Development Programme) programme should be to administer nutrition rather than feeding beneficiaries by giving “nutrient dense food”, said the Minister, who was addressing a national conference on ‘Mission Mode to address Under-Nutrition’, according to an official release. According to a recent report by Save the Children, an international non-profit organisation, India ranks 116th among 172 nations on the index that measure child malnutrition, child labour, child marriage and early pregnancy. The country also has the largest number (48 million) children under the age of five who have stunted growth.

“We must provide 1,000 calories to women and 600 calories to children under ICDS,” said the Minister, adding that there was urgent need to improve the quality of supplementary nutrition and make the delivery system efficient.

In his address, Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog, said the responsibility of tackling malnutrition lay on the shoulders of Deputy Commissioners/District Collectors who should now make a “frontal attack on the problem using a convergence approach as well as with the help of IT tools for real time monitoring.”

Parameswaran Iyer, Secretary, Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, said the problem of malnutrition was closely linked to the problem of drinking water and sanitation. “The Swachh Bharat Mission is trying to achieve the goal of total sanitation which will also contribute to reducing problem of malnutrition,” he added.

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