Over 18,000 children malnourished in Nagaland—Government data

450 Anganwadi Centres in open less than 20% of working days

KOHIMA — Thousands of children under the age of five are malnourished in Nagaland, according to data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Anupriya Patel, revealed this while replying to an unstarred question during the ongoing Parliament session on Friday.

Citing data from Poshan Tracker – June 2025, the minister provided statistics on malnutrition among children under five years, as well as the prevalence of anaemia and thinness among women aged 15–49 years.

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For Nagaland, the number of malnourished children under five is categorised into three groups: 12,697 stunted children; 2,797 wasted children; and 3,152 underweight children.

In a separate response to a question on national malnutrition indicators for children aged 0–5 years, percentage figures from the same data set (June 2025) were shared—stunting: 28.91%; wasting: 6.08%; and underweight: 7%.

To combat malnutrition and anaemia among women and children, the ministry implements several strategies under the National Health Mission (NHM).

These include Nutrition Rehabilitation Centres (NRCs), the Mothers’ Absolute Affection (MAA) Programme, Anaemia Mukt Bharat (AMB) strategy, National Deworming Day (NDD), Lactation Management Centres, and Village Health, Sanitation, and Nutrition Days (VHSNDs).

In a separate response to an unstarred question on the functioning of Anganwadi Centres (AWCs) across the country, Savitri Thakur, Minister of State in the Ministry of Women and Child Development, informed that 450 AWCs in Nagaland are open for less than 20% of working days, while another 2,000 AWCs are open for at least 80% of working days.

The data was also based on the Poshan Tracker – June 2025.