POSHAN Abhiyan: Maharashtra among worst performing states despite highest allocation of funds

By: Yash Gupte

Maharashtra has performed poorly in POSHAN Abhiyan, aimed at making India malnutrition-free, with the state’s ranking slipping to 25th place from earlier 20 in 5 years, reveals an analysis of two consecutive National Family Health Surveys NFHS 2019–21 and NFHS 2015–16) done by Harvard School of Public Health

Maharashtra has performed poorly in POSHAN Abhiyan, aimed at making India malnutrition-free, with the state’s ranking slipping to 25th place from earlier 20 in 5 years, reveals an analysis of two consecutive National Family Health Surveys NFHS 2019–21 and NFHS 2015–16) done by Harvard School of Public Health. Only Gujarat, Jharkhand and Bihar are the 3 states in the country with poorer performance than Maharashtra.

The Prime Minister's Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nutrition (POSHAN Abhiyan), previously known as the National Nutrition Mission (NNM), was launched on 8 March 2018 to improve nutritional outcomes in a phased manner through a holistic life-cycle approach. It aims to reduce stunting, under nutrition, anemia, low birth weight, and malnutrition in pregnant women, adolescent girls, lactating mothers, and children (0–6 years) through the strategic application of technology, the fusion of public services, and community involvement.

With a key performance indicators (KPIs) score of 0.270 in 2021, Maharashtra is ranked 25th. With 0.380 KPIs, the state was placed 20th in 2016. Gujarat has the lowest ranking (28th) and score (0.176), whereas Manipur, Mizoram, and Kerala have the highest rankings (0.919, 0.837, and 0.766 respectively). Apart from this, nine out of 10 districts that performed worst are tribal dominated. Six of these are from Gujarat alone. Nandurbar district, which shares its border with Gujarat is the only district from Maharashtra in the list. On the other hand, the top 10 performing districts have no contribution from Maharashtra at all.

The below chart shows the allocation of funds for the successful implementation of POSHAN Abhiyan by the centre. The cost sharing ratio between the central government and state governments or Union Territories (UTs) with legislatures is 60:40. For North Eastern Region (NER) states and Himalayan states the cost sharing ratio is 90:10.

Source: Ministry of Women and Child Development 

The chart shows top 5 states with highest allocation of funds under the POSHAN Abhiyan from 2017-18 to 2021-22 and also the states with least allocation of funds. Maharashtra has been granted highest funds (Rs. 58,390.84 lakhs) among all the states and Union Territories between 2017-18 and 2021-22.

But in spite of highest allocation of funds for the state which is battling with malnutrition and anemia among children in the tribal areas and other backward areas, it has slipped from the 20^th position to the 25^th in last five years. One of the major reasons behind this is the under utilization of funds by the states. Last year, in the winter session of the parliament, Smriti Irani, Minister of Women and Child development had presented a data report which said that funds released under the POSHAN Abhiyan Programme, aimed at curbing malnutrition in the country were severely under-utilized. The data, tabled by the minister, showed that out of Rs 5,31,279.08 lakh released for POSHAN Abhiyan from the central funds, only Rs 2,98,555.92 lakh had been utilized.

The country recently celebrated its 75^th year of independence. Yet, a section of population has been left behind and continues to battle poverty and hunger. While the government has been launching schemes from time to time to uplift the marginalized, the above data clearly shows that it lacks successful implementation at the grassroot level. It is important that the centre and state government join hands to eliminate the evils of the society.