Nutrition Rehabilitation Centres (NRCs)
- Nutrition Rehabilitation Centres (NRCs) are operational at public health facilities to exclusively cater the under-five sick Severe Acute Malnourished (SAM) children who are admitted for clinical management of their medical complications along with nutritional management.
- SAM children without medical complications do not require admission in NRCs.
- The services and care provided for the in-patient management of SAM children in NRCs include 24-hour care and monitoring of the child; treatment of medical complications; therapeutic feeding; providing sensory stimulation and emotional care; social assessment of the family to identify and address contributing factors; counseling on appropriate feeding, care, and hygiene and follow up of children discharged from the facility.
Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) in India
- In 2022-23, the number of children in NRCs was 1.89 lakh, while in 2021-22, the figure stood at 1.32 lakh. In 2020-21, 1.04 children suffering from SAM with medical complications were admitted to NRCs, the minister said.
- Madhya Pradesh reports the highest number of SAM children admitted to NRCs at 16,276. The figure was 53,490 last year.
- It is followed by Gujarat (5,694), which last year reported 18,978 SAM children admitted to NRCs.