Economy
India’s flagship nutrition scheme may receive only a marginal boost in Budget
Summary
The Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 scheme has helped address issues of stunting and wasting, particularly in tribal areas. But the outlay for it forms only 0.5% of the total Union BudgetNEW DELHI : The Union government’s flagship scheme to address malnutrition is likely to receive a marginal increase in the Budget for financial year 2024-25.
The women and child development ministry’s integrated Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 scheme may receive a budgetary increase of up to 3%, to ₹21,170 crore, for the next financial year, two ministry officials said.
The scheme is targeted at tackling malnutrition challenges among children, adolescent girls, pregnant women, and lactating mothers. The outlay for the scheme forms 0.5% of the total Union Budget.
The Budget estimate for the scheme in FY24 was ₹20,554 crore, 1.4% higher than the revised allocation of ₹20,263 crore for FY23. The scheme had received its highest hike in budgetary allocation in FY23–up by about 10% from the ₹18,382 crore allocated for FY22.
The ministries of finance and WCD didn't immediately reply to queries.
As per the National Family Health Survey-5 (for 2019-21, the latest available), nutrition indicators for children younger than 5 years had improved from the period of the earlier survey (NFHS-4, 2015-16).
Prevalence of stunting in children had reduced from 38.4% to 35.5%, of wasting from 21.0% to 19.3%, and of underweight instances from 35.8% to 32.1%. Wasting is an indicator of when a child’s weight is too low for their height.
Improving nutritional levels among children and mothers remains a top priority for the government, said one of the officials mentioned above.
About 81% of the ministry’s budgetary allocation is dedicated to the Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 scheme. The Mission Shakti scheme–aimed at women’s safety and empowerment–received 12% of the ministry’s total Budget allocation of ₹25,449 crore for FY24.
The Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 scheme was approved for implementation during the 15th Finance Commission period of 202l-22 to 2025-26.
The scheme is proving helpful in addressing issues of stunting and wasting, particularly in tribal areas, the second official mentioned earlier said.
Services under the scheme have reached about 95 million beneficiaries, including 7.7 million children under age six, and 1.8 million pregnant women and lactating mothers, Union minister for women and child development, Smriti Irani, informed the Rajya Sabha in February last year.
