About:
- Poshan Abhiyan leverages technology and convergence between various modules and departments.
- The term ‘Poshan’ in the name of the program stands for ‘Prime Minister’s Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nutrition.
- The program has specific targets for reducing stunting, anemia, undernutrition, and low birth weight.
- The implementing agency is the Ministry of Women and Child Development.
Objective:
The chief objective of the mission is to reduce the level of undernutrition and also enhance the nutritional status of children in the country.
Key features of Poshan Abhiyan:
- Poshan Abhiyaan will involve the Farmer Producer Organisation (FPO), and Women Self Help Groups in the implementation of the scheme to support vocal locals and to fulfill the objectives of the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative.
- Social Audit: To check the implementation of the national nutrition mission, social audits will be made mandatory for each school in every district. It would engage University and college students to monitor the implementation of the Poshan Abhiyaan scheme through the field visit.
- Nutritional Garden: It will promote the development of nutrition gardens in the school, which will be used to provide additional micronutrients to the students. The school will also be encouraged to organize cooking competitions and design the menu on the basis of the vegetables available in local markets.
- Supplementary Nutrition: The Poshan Abhiyaan scheme has the provision for the state or district having a high prevalence of anemia to include any supplementary item. If the state wants to include local vegetables or any other nutritional food, such as milk or fruit, they can include them with the center’s approval.
- Tithi Bhojan: The national nutrition mission has also included the concept of Tithi Bhojan, in which the students from private schools will be encouraged to voluntarily share their meals with the children from the marginalized section at least once a month. Tithi bhojan is a community participation program in which people provide special food to the children on special occasions or festivals.
- Nutrition Expert: A nutrition expert is to be appointed in each school whose responsibility is to regularly conduct check-ups such as – Body Mass Index (BMI), weight, hemoglobin levels, etc.
- Poshan Tracker App: An App was launched to strengthen and bring transparency to nutrition delivery services. It enables real-time monitoring and tracking of all Anganwadi centers (AWC), Anganwadi workers (AWW), and beneficiaries.
National Nutrition Mission – Poshan Maah
The main purpose was to create awareness about the nutritional importance among the people, and the main focus of the Poshan Maah was on social as well as behavioral change and communication, which helped to build awareness through assertive dialogue and thereby educated a lot of people in the way of communication about the nutritional importance.
- The POSHAN MAAH is mainly based on antenatal care, optimal breastfeeding, anemia, and growth monitoring, i.e. height, girl’s education, diet, hygiene, sanitation, eating healthy, etc.
- Over 120 million women, 60 million men, and 130 million children were reached out for the implementation of Poshan Maah under the Poshan Abhiyaan.
Mission POSHAN 2.0
- Poshan 2.0 shall focus on Maternal Nutrition, Infant and Young Child Feeding Norms, Treatment of MAM/SAM, and Wellness through AYUSH. It will rest on the pillars of Convergence, Governance, and Capacity-building. Poshan Abhiyan will be the key pillar for Outreach and will cover innovations related to nutritional support, ICT interventions, Media Advocacy and Research, Community Outreach, and Jan Andolan.
- Mission Poshan 2.0 will integrate several key strategies to fulfill its objectives, viz., Corrective strategies, Nutrition Awareness strategies, Communication strategies, and the Creation of green ecosystems. The objectives under Mission Poshan 2.0 will be realized through strong interventions-driven convergent activities with key Ministries/Depts./Organizations.
