Key facts

  • ICDS was launched on 2 October 1975 and made Anganwadi centres the field platform for supplementary nutrition, growth monitoring support, preschool ed...
  • The National Food Security Act, 2013 gives legal entitlement to nutritional support for children, pregnant women and lactating mothers through ICDS an...
  • POSHAN Abhiyaan, launched in 2018, focuses on reducing stunting, undernutrition, anaemia and low birth weight through convergence, monitoring and beha...
  • Severe acute malnutrition in children aged 6-59 months is identified by weight-for-height or weight-for-length Z-score below -3, MUAC below 11.5 cm, v...

Key Points at a Glance

  1. 1

    WHO defines malnutrition as deficiencies, excesses or imbalances in energy or nutrient intake, so it includes undernutrition, micronutrient deficiency, overweight, obesity and diet-related disease.

  2. 2

    ICDS was launched on 2 October 1975 and made Anganwadi centres the field platform for supplementary nutrition, growth monitoring support, preschool education, health check-ups and referral services.

  3. 3

    The National Food Security Act, 2013 gives legal entitlement to nutritional support for children, pregnant women and lactating mothers through ICDS and related food-security provisions.

  4. 4

    POSHAN Abhiyaan, launched in 2018, focuses on reducing stunting, undernutrition, anaemia and low birth weight through convergence, monitoring and behaviour-change communication.

  5. 5

    Severe acute malnutrition in children aged 6-59 months is identified by weight-for-height or weight-for-length Z-score below -3, MUAC below 11.5 cm, visible severe wasting or bilateral pitting oedema.

  6. 6

    Marasmus is severe calorie and protein deficiency with extreme wasting, while kwashiorkor is severe protein deficiency classically associated with oedema, fatty liver and skin or hair changes.

  7. 7

    Nutrition Rehabilitation Centres and similar facility-based care units manage children with severe acute malnutrition who have medical complications, failed appetite tests or other danger signs.

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Malnutrition: meaning and classification

Malnutrition is not only hunger. It is a state in which the body's need for energy, protein, vitamins, minerals or other nutrients is not met in the correct quantity and quality. The shortage may be absolute, as in poor food intake, or functional, as when infection, diarrhoea or poor absorption prevents nutrients from being used. The opposite condition also belongs to malnutrition: excess energy intake with poor diet quality can lead to overweight, obesity, hypertension, diabetes and other diet-related non-communicable diseases.

For objective exams, classify malnutrition into undernutrition, micronutrient-related malnutrition and overnutrition. Undernutrition includes wasting, stunting, underweight and protein-energy malnutrition. Micronutrient malnutrition includes iron-deficiency anaemia, vitamin A deficiency, iodine deficiency disorders and other specific deficits. Overnutrition includes overweight and obesity, often driven by high intake of fried foods, sugar, refined carbohydrates and ultra-processed foods combined with low physical activity. A Mahila Supervisor must recognise both ends: a thin child with repeated infections and an adolescent girl gaining excess weight on nutrient-poor snacks are different forms of the same broad public-health problem.

Core recall: malnutrition means imbalance, not only lack of food.

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