Village Pimpalgaon Nipani, Niphad Block, Dist, Nashik, Maharashtra, INDIA. Women along with their children attend programme on Nutrition for child and women, Malnutrition, superstition, Womens rights, child education rights etc. outside primary school in Pimpalgaon Nipani Village. Maharashtra was the first state in the country to take a decision to tackle malnutrition in ‘Mission – mode’. The first phase of the Health and Nutrition Mission was set up in 2005, and the second phase in November 2011. The aim of the Mission is to reduce child malnutrition in Maharashtra by focusing on the first 1000 days from conception, i.e. the period of -9 to 24 months. Though technically under the Women & Child Development, in practice the Mission works as an antonomous technical and advisory body, funded by UNICEF. It aims at improving convergence and coordination between Health and Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS). The recent Nutrition Survey (CNSM - 2012) conducted by International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), the same agency that has implemented the national DHS surveys in India in 1992, 1999, 2006. The preliminary findings of the survey indicate that the prevalence of stunting in children under-two decreased from 39.0 per cent in 2006 to 22.8 per cent in 2012, which shows encouraging improvements in the nutritional status of children in Maharashtra over the last 6 to 7 years, with marked reduction in the incidence of under – weight, wasting and stunting in children below 2 years of age. Importantly, prevalence of severe stunting in children under-two decreased from 14.6 per cent in 2006 to 7.8 per cent in 2012. This positive trend is seen both in rural and urban areas. This can be attributed to several initiatives under NRHM, the expansion of the anganwadi network and the efforts of the Mission. As per the latest Nutrition Survey In Maharashtra (CNSM 2012), all measures of malnutrition have reduced substantially in the last 6 years, including stunting and wasting.

UNICEF India/2014/Dhiraj Singh.