The Woman and Child Development Ministry has prepared a plan to give a renewed push to its national nutrition mission, which had to be shelved due to massive budget cut earlier this year, when the Ministry’s funds were slashed to `10,382.40 crore from `18,588.39 crore last year.

WCD Minister Maneka Gandhi had written to the Finance Ministry seeking more funds to get the project going. The national nutrition was a key project of the Ministry, which could not take off due to fund shortage.

“We have decided to intensify our efforts in battling malnourishment among children. The Ministry is aiming to bring down malnutrition from the current 50 per cent to 30 per cent, with its focus on under-nutrition which is about 40 per cent at present,” said an official from the WCD Ministry.

“The Ministry also hopes to arrest and reverse anaemia (iron deficiency in women) from the current 55 per cent down to about 28 per cent,” said the official.

A recent UNICEF survey report also shows that almost all States across India have performed poorly in reducing the number of underweight and stunted children in past year. The report, which is yet to be published entirely, reflects that performances of Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh in reducing the number of child stunting cases and underweight children are worse than the national average.

“Work is underway to establish a national mission to address malnutrition in the country. It is a grave area of concern and needs attention,” said the official.

“We will kick-start our project from September 1, the start of the National Nutrition Week,” said the official.

To be celebrated with the theme of ‘Better Nutrition: Key to Development’, National Nutrition Week 2015 will be marked by organising state-level workshops, lectures, exhibitions and showcasing films on the importance of nutrition.

The official said the Food and Nutrition Board through its 43 Community and Food Nutrition Extension Units located in 29 States and Union Territories will coordinate with concerned departments of all 35 States/UTs, national institutions, NGOs to organise State-level workshop, orientation training of field personnel, awareness generation camps, community meetings during the week on the specified theme.