POSHAN JAGRUKTA ABHIYAAN

Ministry of Women and Child Development

Context:

New data released by Ministry of Women and Child Development under Poshan Jagrukta Abhiyaan.

POSHAN JAGRUKTA ABHIYAAN

• Launched by the Indian Prime Minister on the occasion of International Women’s Day on 8 March, 2018.
• POSHAN (Prime Minister’s Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nutrition) Abhiyaan is Government of India’s flagship programme to improve nutritional outcomes for children, adolescent girls, pregnant women and lactating mothers. 
• The POSHAN Abhiyaan seeks to address the issue of malnutrition in mission-mode.
• Objectives: To strengthen nutritional content, delivery, outreach and outcomes, with a focus on developing practices that nurture health, wellness and immunity to disease and malnutrition.

Overview of Poshan Jagrukta Abhiyaan:

POSHAN Abhiyaan, strives to induce behavioural change through nutrition centric Jan Andolans in the form of Poshan Pakhwadas, Poshan Maahs and Community Based Events (CBEc) through involvement of Panchayati Raj Institutions/Villages Organizations/SHGs/volunteers etc. and ensuring wide public participation. States/UTs are carrying out IEC activities on regular basis. The month of September is celebrated as Rashtriya Poshan Maah across the country. The Rashtriya Poshan Maah 2021 witnessed wide participation and enthusiasm from convergent Ministries, States/UTs and field functionaries. Besides, community groups, Panchayati Raj Institutions, staff at Block and District level also participated in the month long activities. The activities were monitored online, in real time using the POSHAN Abhiyaan Jan Andolan Dashboard, that provided for data entry at National, State, District and Block levels.

The month long celebrations were focused on four themes which are as under:

1. Plantation activity on “Poshan Vatika”
2. Yoga and AYUSH for Nutrition
3. Distribution of ‘Regional Nutrition Kit’ to Anganwadi beneficiaries
4. Identification of SAM children and distribution of nutritious food

The major activities conducted during Poshan Maah included organization of Anemia camps, promotion of breastfeeding, growth monitoring and identification of SAM/MAM children, hygiene, water & sanitation related activities, promotion of complementary feeding, antenatal check-up, Yoga for Health and AYUSH for well-being, Poshan ke Paanch Sutras (First 1000 days), emphasis on food fortification & micronutrients, immunisation, plantation drives /poshan vatika and distribution of Regional Nutrition Kit.

About POSHAN Abhiyaan:

• The Prime Minister’s Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nutrition or POSHAN Abhiyaan or National Nutrition Mission, is Government of India’s flagship programme to improve nutritional outcomes for children, pregnant women and lactating mothers.
• Launched by the Prime Minister on the occasion of the International Women’s Day on 8 March, 2018 from Jhunjhunu in Rajasthan,
• The POSHAN (Prime Minister’s Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nutrition) Abhiyaan directs the attention of the country towards the problem of malnutrition and address it in a mission-mode.
• POSHAN Abhiyaan is an overarching umbrella scheme to improve the nutritional outcomes for children, pregnant women and lactating mothers by holistically addressing the multiple determinants of malnutrition and attempts to prioritize the efforts of all stakeholders on a comprehensive package of intervention and services targeted on the first 1000 days of a child’s life.
• It aims to reduce child stunting, underweight and low birth weight by 2 percentage points per annum and anaemia among children (and young females) by 3 percentage points per annum
• The target of the mission is to bring down stunting among children in the age group 0-6 years from 38.4% to 25% by 2022.
• The mission also encompasses mapping of various other schemes related to malnutrition and enabling synergies through ICT-based real-time monitoring system, robust convergence between the schemes, incentivising states and UTs for meeting the set targets, and optimising Anganwadi centres’ functioning, apart from conducting social audits.

• These other schemes include the Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY), Janani Suraksha Yojana, Scheme for Adolescent Girls (SAG), Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan, PDS, National Health Mission, etc.
• For Anganwadi centres, the mission envisages the following:
  • Giving incentives to Anganwadi Workers (AWWs) for using IT-based tools.
  • Elimination of registers used by AWWs.
  • Measuring the height of children at Anganwadi centres.
• NITI Aayog has played a critical role in shaping the POSHAN Abhiyaan. The National Nutrition Strategy, released by NITI Aayog in September, 2017 presented a micro analysis of the problems persisting within this area and chalked out an in-depth strategy for course correction. Most of the recommendations presented in the Strategy document have been subsumed within the design of the POSHAN Abhiyaan and now that the Abhiyaan is launched, NITI Aayog has been entrusted with the task of closely monitoring the POSHAN Abhiyaan and undertaking periodic evaluations.
• As a part of its mandate, NITI Aayog is required to submit implementation status reports of POSHAN Abhiyaan every six months to the PMO. The first bi-annual report was prepared and presented at third National Nutrition Council on India’s Nutrition Challenges (which is housed within NITI) in November 2018.
•  The task of implementation of POSHAN Abhiyaan is to be carried out through the Technical Support Unit (TSU) established at NITI Aayog which, in addition to the M&E, will also provide research, policy and technical support to the Abhiyaan.
• With the overarching aim to build a people’s movement (Jan Andolan) around malnutrition, POSHAN Abhiyaan intends to significantly reduce malnutrition in the next three years.

Mission Poshan 2.0

It is an integrated nutrition support programme has been announced in budget 2021-2022 for all 36 States/UTs covering all the Districts which includes Aspirational Districts. It seeks to strengthen nutritional content, delivery, outreach and outcomes with focus on developing practices that nurture health, wellness and immunity to disease and malnutrition. Steps have been taken to improve nutritional quality and testing in accredited labs, strengthen delivery and leverage technology under Poshan Tracker to improve governance. States/UTs have been advised to promote use of AYUSH systems for prevention of malnutrition and related diseases. Guidelines were issued for transparency and accountability in delivery of supplementary nutrition and to track nutritional outcomes on 13.01.2021.

Source: PIB

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