Nutrition & Wellbeing
A data page. Every figure below carries its source, the year it refers to, the geography it covers and the context needed to read it correctly. National, State and district figures are never mixed.
Nutrition statistics are frequently quoted without the information needed to interpret them. Two figures can appear contradictory simply because they come from different surveys, different years or different populations. Every figure on this page is therefore presented with four fixed fields — source, year, geography and context. None is presented as current unless its year says so, and no national figure is described as a Madhya Pradesh or Dhar figure.
National nutrition indicators, NFHS-5
The National Family Health Survey is the principal source of nutrition indicators in India. The fifth round, NFHS-5, was conducted in 2019–21. These figures describe that period and should not be read as current-year figures.
Stunting — low height for age
Stunting reflects chronic undernutrition over an extended period, and is associated with impaired cognitive development and reduced adult productivity. It is the indicator most resistant to short-term intervention.
- Source
- National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5)
- Year
- 2019–21
- Geography
- India — national
- Context
- Children under five years of age
Wasting — low weight for height
Wasting indicates acute undernutrition, often recent and often linked to illness or a sharp fall in food intake. Unlike stunting it can change quickly in either direction, which makes it a sensitive indicator of current conditions.
- Source
- National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5)
- Year
- 2019–21
- Geography
- India — national
- Context
- Children under five years of age
Underweight — low weight for age
A composite indicator reflecting both chronic and acute undernutrition. A child may be underweight through stunting, through wasting, or through both, which is why it is reported alongside rather than instead of the other two.
- Source
- National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5)
- Year
- 2019–21
- Geography
- India — national
- Context
- Children under five years of age
Anaemia among children under five
Anaemia prevalence among children under five was recorded as higher in the fifth round than in the fourth. Anaemia is associated with impaired cognitive development and reduced immunity, and is a stated focus of nutrition programming.
- Source
- National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5, compared with NFHS-4)
- Year
- 2019–21 (NFHS-4: 2015–16)
- Geography
- India — national
- Context
- Children under five years. The direction of change — an increase between rounds — is as important as the level. The exact NFHS-4 comparison figure is not restated here.
State indicators, separately stated
These are Madhya Pradesh figures from the same survey round. They are set out separately, and must not be read together with the national figures above as though they described the same population.
Stunting among children under five
The State report records that thirty-six per cent of children under age five years in Madhya Pradesh are stunted, indicating undernutrition over an extended period.
- Source
- NFHS-5 State Report — Madhya Pradesh
- Year
- 2019–21
- Geography
- Madhya Pradesh — State
- Context
- Children under five. Not a Dhar district figure.
Wasting among children under five
Nineteen per cent of children under five in the State are recorded as wasted — too thin for their height.
- Source
- NFHS-5 State Report — Madhya Pradesh
- Year
- 2019–21
- Geography
- Madhya Pradesh — State
- Context
- Children under five. Not a Dhar district figure.
Anaemia among women in Madhya Pradesh
Anaemia prevalence among women in the State rose between the two survey rounds. Maternal anaemia is directly relevant to birth outcomes and to infant nutritional status, which is why maternal and child nutrition are addressed together.
- Source
- NFHS-5, compared with NFHS-4 — Madhya Pradesh
- Year
- 2019–21 (NFHS-4: 2015–16)
- Geography
- Madhya Pradesh — State
- Context
- Women. A different population from the child indicators above.
How nutrition reaches a household
Mission Saksham Anganwadi and POSHAN 2.0 is the Government of India’s integrated nutrition support programme, subsuming Anganwadi Services, POSHAN Abhiyaan and the Scheme for Adolescent Girls.
Four groups
Children below six years; pregnant women; lactating mothers; and adolescent girls aged 14 to 18 in aspirational districts and all districts of the North East region.
The Anganwadi Centre
The community-level facility at which supplementary nutrition, growth monitoring, pre-school education, health referral and counselling are delivered.
Poshan Tracker
An ICT governance tool rolled out on 1 March 2021 for near real-time monitoring, last-mile tracking of service delivery and dynamic identification of stunting, wasting and underweight prevalence.
Six levers
The Ministry describes POSHAN 2.0 as addressing malnutrition through transparency, accountability, diet diversity and quality, food fortification, grassroots involvement and last-mile delivery.
Registered Anganwadi Centres on the Poshan Tracker application.
- Source
- Press Information Bureau / Ministry of Women and Child Development
- Year
- As on 17 September 2025
- Geography
- India — national
- Context
- A registration count on an administrative system. Not a measure of outcomes.
Eligible beneficiaries registered on the Poshan Tracker application.
- Source
- Press Information Bureau / Ministry of Women and Child Development
- Year
- As on 17 September 2025
- Geography
- India — national
- Context
- An earlier release recorded 10,12,46,106 beneficiaries as on 28 February 2025. Counts are point-in-time and move between reporting dates; neither figure supersedes the other as a trend.
Nutrition in the ministerial record
17 June 2025 — Sethi Nagar Anganwadi Centre, Indore. The Ministry recorded a field inspection at which the Minister reviewed services being delivered at the centre and interacted with Anganwadi workers, beneficiaries and the community on the ground-level impact of nutrition, health and education interventions.
7 November 2025 — Kadamtala Anganwadi Centre, Jiribam, Manipur. The release records that the supervisor briefed the Minister on health check-ups, nutrition tracking via Poshan Tracker, pre-school education, home rations, Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana, and services for pregnant and lactating mothers, adolescent girls and children.
7 November 2025 — District Hospital, Ningsingkhul. The same release records that the Minister administered Oral Polio Vaccine to infants and enquired about Sickle Cell Anaemia prevalence and Ayushman Bharat benefits.
No improvement in any nutrition indicator is attributed on this site to any individual. Nutrition outcomes are the product of programmes operating over years across States, and the surveys that measure them are periodic. The activity above is recorded as activity — visits, reviews and enquiries — not as results.
Nor is any Dhar-specific nutrition statistic presented, because no verified district-level figure has been sourced for this record.