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Smriti Irani, Union minister for women and child development, denied that a large number of children in the country are suffering from malnutrition.
The indicators for malnutrition like underweight, stunting and wasting have shown a steady improvement in National Health Family Survey (NFHS) conducted by the Union ministry of health & family welfare (MoHFW), she said.
As per the recent report of NFHS-5 (2019-21), the nutrition indicators for children under five years have improved as compared with NFHS-4 (2015-16). Stunting has reduced from 38.4 per cent to 35.5 per cent, while wasting has reduced from 21.0 per cent to 19.3 per cent and Underweight prevalence has reduced from 35.8 per cent to 32.1 per cent, Irani told the Rajya Sabha.
The Union ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH) publishes “Road Accidents in India” report annually based on data received from the police departments of states / Union territories, Nitin Gadkari, Union minister for MoRTH, told the Rajya Sabha.
As per the report, in 2022, 1,68,491 people were killed in road accidents as compared to 1,53,972 people killed in 2021. So, the data shows there has been a 9.4 per cent increase in the fatalities due to accidents on road in the country, he said.
The government has integrated education with rural development and agriculture, Annpurna Devi, minister of state in the Union ministry of education told the Rajya Sabha. The theme of agriculture and development including rural is spread out in different subject matters and is integrated with the curriculum.
The annual electricity generation from nuclear power plants has increased from 35,334 million units (including infirm or non-commercial) in 2013-14 to 46,982 million units (including infirm) in 2022-23, Jitendra Singh, minister of state for Union ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions and Prime Minister’s Office told the Lok Sabha. The installed nuclear power capacity in 2013-14 has also increased from 4,780 megawatts (MW) to 7,480 MW at present.
It is unlikely that poverty is underestimated using individual data (rather than ‘household’ data), Rao Inderjit Singh, minister of state (independent charge) of the Union ministry of statistics and programme implementation told the Lok Sabha.
The minister explained the parameters used for estimating poverty in the public policy think tank NITI Aayog’s report National Multidimensional Poverty Index: A Progress Review 2023.
The report estimated multidimensional poverty at national, state and district levels, Singh said. The estimates in the National MPI are based on the NFHS, sourced by the International Institute for Population Sciences in coordination with the MoHFW.
Like the global MPI, India’s national MPI has three equally weighted dimensions: Health, education and standard of living. India’s MPI covers 12 indicators: Nutrition, child and adolescent mortality, maternal health, years of schooling, school attendance, cooking fuel, sanitation, drinking water, electricity, housing, bank accounts and assets, he said.
Of these, in indicators like nutrition, maternal health and school attendance, if any individual within the household for whom data indicates deprivation, then the entire household is considered deprived, Singh added.
Food Safety and Standards Authority of India notified the draft Food Safety and Standards (Labelling & Display) Amendment Regulations, 2022 on September 13, 2022, wherein the Indian Nutrition Rating (INR) has been proposed as front of pack nutritional labelling, Ashwini Kumar Choubey, minister of state for Union ministry of consumer affairs, food and public distribution, told the Lok Sabha.
The INR are summary labels that provide nutritional information about a food product by way of a number of stars ranging from 0.5 to 5, which are attributed to the overall nutritional profile of the food.
These include “nutrients of concern” (sodium, total sugars, saturated fat and energy) as well as “positive nutrients” (protein, dietary fibre and any aspect of fruit, vegetable, legume or nut content). It is based on the principle that “the more stars, the healthier the choice,” the minister said.
As of November 30, 2023, the ethanol production capacity in the country is about 13,800 million litres, out of which about 8750 million litres are molasses-based and about 5050 million litres are grain-based, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, minister of state for the Union ministry of rural development and consumer affairs, food & public distribution, told the Lok Sabha.