Malnutrition has long shadowed India's children. POSHAN Abhiyaan (2018) knit together anganwadi centres, mid-day meals, and free food-grain for 80 crore people to fight stunting, wasting and anaemia.
Nutrition · POSHAN
Nutrition · POSHAN
Child malnutrition remains one of India's hardest challenges. POSHAN Abhiyaan (2018) and a huge network of anganwadi centres, plus free food-grain for 80 crore people, target stunting, wasting and anaemia. Stunting among under-fives fell modestly from 38.4% (2015-16) to 35.5% (2019-21) — real but slow progress. A digital Poshan Tracker now monitors nutrition in real time. The counter shows the child stunting rate.
35.5%
Child stunting (2021)
80 cr
Given free food-grain
2018
POSHAN Abhiyaan
Child stunting (under-5)
| Year | Child stunting (under-5) |
|---|---|
| 2016 | 38 % |
| 2017 | 38 % |
| 2018 | 37 % |
| 2019 | 37 % |
| 2020 | 36 % |
| 2021 | 36 % |
2016
0%
Child stunting (under-5)
20162021
Since 2016
Added
+-3 %
2016
38 %
2021
36 %
Why it matters Good early-childhood nutrition shapes lifelong health, learning and productivity — tackling stunting is one of the highest-return investments a nation can make.
- Child stunting (under-5): 38.4% (2016) → 35.5% (2021)
- POSHAN Abhiyaan (2018); Poshan Tracker; free grain to 80 cr
- Sources: NFHS-4, NFHS-5
History
Slow, real progress
Stunting among under-fives eased from 38.4% (2015-16) to 35.5% (2019-21), and a digital Poshan Tracker now monitors millions of children and mothers in real time — but the gains are modest and uneven across states.
How it works
India fights malnutrition mainly through the Anganwadi network — over a million village centres that give young children, pregnant women and new mothers supplementary food, growth monitoring, immunisation and pre-school care. This runs under POSHAN Abhiyaan, which uses technology to track children's growth in real time, alongside the school mid-day meal (PM POSHAN) and the Anaemia Mukt Bharat campaign. Because nutrition depends on clean water and health too, the effort is deliberately multi-sectoral.
Outlook
Progress is real but slow: child stunting eased to 35.5% (from 38.4%) in the latest survey, yet wasting and — worryingly — anaemia worsened, with over half of women affected. The next step is speeding up by joining the dots: clean water, sanitation, diverse diets and incomes together, since no single scheme fixes malnutrition. Fortified rice in ration shops and stronger anganwadis are the near-term levers.
The road ahead
The next step is speeding up — nutrition depends on clean water, sanitation, diets and incomes together, so tackling stunting and anaemia needs joined-up effort beyond any single scheme.
By the numbers
Child stunting 38.4% (2016) → 35.5% (2021); free grain to 80 cr; POSHAN Abhiyaan (2018). Sources: NFHS-4, NFHS-5.
Source: NFHS-4 & NFHS-5 — stunting among children under 5 (%), 2016–2021.