22-Mar-2023: Mission Poshan 2.0

Government has accorded high priority to the issue of malnutrition and is implementing Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 (Mission Poshan 2.0) which includes key schemes such as the POSHAN Abhiyaan, Anganwadi Services and Scheme for Adolescent Girls as direct targeted interventions to address the problem of malnutrition in the country. The beneficiaries under the Anganwadi Services scheme are children in the age group of 0-6 years, pregnant women and lactating mothers. Supplementary nutrition is provided to beneficiaries in the form of Hot Cooked Meals at Anganwadi Centres and Take Home Ration (not raw ration).

Mission Poshan 2.0 seeks to address the challenges of malnutrition in children, adolescent girls, pregnant women and lactating mothers through a strategic shift in nutrition content and delivery and by creation of a convergent eco-system to develop and promote practices that nurture health, wellness and immunity. Steps have been taken to improve nutritional quality and testing in accredited labs, strengthen delivery and leverage technology under the 'Poshan Tracker' for prompt supervision and management of services.

Under Mission Poshan 2.0, focus is on diet diversity, food fortification, and popularizing use of millets. Nutrition awareness strategies under Poshan 2.0 aim to develop sustainable health and well-being through wholesome local foods to bridge dietary gaps. Dietary diversification in the Anganwadi platform encourages the consumption of micronutrient rich foods, viz., dark green leafy vegetables, lentils and vitamin C rich fruits. To reduce the malnutrition and anaemia in women and children arising due to deficiency of micro nutrients like Iron, Folic Acid and Vitamin B-12, under Supplementary Nutrition Programme of Anganwadi Services, Fortified Rice was allocated to 21 States/UTs during the 2nd quarter of FY 2021-22 and from the 3rd quarter of FY 2021-22 onwards only Fortified Rice is being allocated to all the State/UTs.

Further, as per the Mission Poshan 2.0 guidelines, millets need to be mandatorily supplied at least once a week and suitably integrated in Take Home Ration (not raw ration) and Hot Cooked Meals in a palatable form.

Poshan Abhiyan is a key component of Mission Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0. A novel feature of POSHAN Abhiyaan has been its focus on social and behavioural change communication (SBCC) thus paving way for a mass movement to promote transformative change, referred to as Jan Andolan. An important focus has therefore been on ‘Behaviour Change Communication’ or BCC to address inadequate and inappropriate infant and young child feeding practices, nutrition and care during pregnancy and adolescence.

Under Poshan Abhiyaan, Community Based Events or CBEs have served as a significant strategy in changing nutrition practices. The gatherings serve as a platform for disseminating essential messages and to counsel pregnant and lactating women, and their husbands/mothers-in-law on appropriate nutrition and health behaviour. The events are organised every month at Anganwadi centres (AWC) and primarily focus on promotion of maternal nutrition (Godhbharai) and/ or initiation of appropriate complementary feeding (Annaprasan). So far, close to 3.7 crore CBEs have been held across the country.

At the national level, the Rashtriya Poshan Maah is celebrated in the month of September across the country, while Poshan Pakhwada is celebrated in the month of March.. Through these Jan Andolans, women and community, at large are sensitized on issues like importance of maternal nutrition, appropriate techniques of breastfeeding, importance of timely initiation of complimentary feeding etc. During Poshan Maah 2022, themes like Mahilaaur Swasthya, Bachchaaur Shiksha, Gender Sensitive Water Management and Traditional Food for Women & Child were especially emphasized upon. Around 80% of activities reported were focussed on the key theme of ‘Mahilaaur Swasthya, which included awareness drives on Anemia prevention, Anemia testing, camps on appropriate breastfeeding practices etc.

The achievements under Mission POSHAN 2.0 are as follows:

      1. The Mission has been rolled out across all the 36 States/UTs. It covers around 730 Districts including 112 Aspirational Districts.
      2. Close to 11 lakh smart phones have been provided to Anganwadi workers. Besides, to promote regular growth monitoring, 12.53 lakh Growth Monitoring Devices such as Infantometer, Stadiometer, Weighing Scale for Mother and Infant and Weighing Scale for Child have been procured by States/UTs under the Abhiyaan.
      3. IT systems have been leveraged to strengthen and bring about transparency in nutrition delivery support systems. The ‘Poshan Tracker’ application was rolled out on 1stMarch,2021 through National e-Governance Division (NeGD), as an important governance tool. Around 13.97 lakh AWCs have started using the ICT Application.
      4. A Web and App based ‘Grievance Redressal Cell’ has been established for effective service delivery and beneficiary feedback. Besides, a national Poshan Helpline has been made available for beneficiaries and the public. Through the Helpline a beneficiary can raise a concern about the services offered under Mission Poshan 2.0.
      5. Streamlined Guidelines were issued on 13thJanuary, 2021 to ensure greater transparency and accountability and quality in nutrition service delivery.
      6. Around 60+ crore Jan Andolan based activities have been held. Moreover, the Poshan Maah conducted during the month of September 2022 witnessed approximately 17 crore Jan Andolan based activities throughout the country. Around 3.70 crore Community Based Events (CBEs) have also been organized in a convergent manner at Anganwadi Centres.
      7. More than 4 lakh Poshan Vatikas have been developed and 1.10 lakh Medicinal Saplings have been planted across the country.
      8. More than 10 lakh Frontline Functionaries have been trained on thematic modules.
      9. More than 90% of beneficiaries registered on the Poshan Tracker have been successfully Aadhar verified.
      10. For the first time, migration facility for pregnant women and lactating mothers from one AWC to another within and outside a State has been facilitated under the Poshan Tracker. Migration facility from one category to another category of beneficiary is also available. Integration of the Poshan Tracker with RCH portal of Ministry of Health & Family Welfare is under process.
      11. Best Practices on use of millets and improvement in nutritional status of severely acutely malnourished (SAM) children in districts were recognized and selected for the PM’s Award for Excellence for promotion of Jan Bhagidari in Poshan Abhiyaan on 21st April 2022. These best practices, shared with all States/UTs included Mission Sampurna Poshan in Asifabad, Telangana, Mera Bachccha Abhiyaan Model in Datia, Madhya Pradesh and Project Sampoorna in Bongaigaon, Assam.
      12. The estimated number of underweight, malnourished and severely malnourished children under 5 years of age is obtained under National Family Health Survey (NFHS) conducted by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare. As per the recent report of NFHS-5 (2019-21), the nutrition indicators for children under 5 years have improved as compared with NFHS-4 (2015-16). Wasting has improved from 21% (NFHS-4) to 19.3 % (NFHS-5), Under-weight has improved from 35.7% (NFHS-4) to 32.1% (NFHS-5) and stunting has improved from 38.4% (NFHS-4) to 35.5% (NFHS-5).

17-Mar-2023: POSHAN Abhiyaan

POSHAN Abhiyaan was launched on 8th March 2018 with an aim to achieve improvement in nutritional status of Adolescent Girls, Pregnant Women and Lactating Mothers in a time bound manner by adopting a synergised and result oriented approach. The Abhiyaan has been rolled out in all the States/UTs including the constituencies of Bhuj, Abdasa, Gandhidham, Rapar, Mandvi, Anjar of the Kutch District.

The efforts under the Supplementary Nutrition Programme under Anganwadi Services and POSHAN Abhiyaan have been rejuvenated and converged as ‘Saksham Anganwadi and POSHAN 2.0’ (Mission Poshan 2.0). It seeks to address the challenges of malnutrition in children, adolescent girls, pregnant women and lactating mothers through a strategic shift in nutrition content and delivery and by creation of a convergent eco-system to develop and promote practices that nurture health, wellness and immunity.

Mission Poshan 2.0 focuses on Maternal Nutrition, Infant and Young Child Feeding Norms, Treatment of MAM/SAM and Wellness through AYUSH. It rests on the pillars of Convergence, Governance, and Capacity-building. POSHAN Abhiyaan is the key pillar for Outreach and will cover innovations related to nutritional support, ICT interventions, Media Advocacy and Research, Community Outreach and Jan Andolan. Steps have been taken to improve nutritional quality and testing in accredited labs, strengthen delivery and leverage technology under the 'Poshan Tracker', a robust ICT enabled platform to improve governance with regard to real time monitoring of provisioning of supplementary nutrition for prompt supervision and management of services.

Under Mission Poshan 2.0, focus is on diet diversity, food fortification, leveraging traditional systems of knowledge and popularizing use of millets. Nutrition awareness strategies under Mission Poshan 2.0 aim to develop sustainable health and well-being through regional meal plans to bridge dietary gaps. Further, greater emphasis is being given on the use of millets for preparation of Hot Cooked Meal and Take Home rations (not raw ration) at Anganwadi centres for Pregnant Women, Lactating Mothers and Children below 6 years of age, as millets have high nutrient content which includes protein, essential fatty acid, dietary fibre, B-Vitamins, minerals such as calcium, iron, zinc, folic acid and other micro-nutrients thus helping to tackle anemia and other micro-nutrient deficiencies common among women and children.

Further, the initiatives taken by the Government of Gujarat throughout the State, including Kutch District, are as under:

  • Regular Growth Monitoring of children under 5 years of age is carried out.
  • Training of State, District and Block Resource Groups at sector level on Interactive Learning Modules in 7 districts
  • A total of 11029 Poshan Vatikas were developed at Anganwadi Centres across the State, where in 1806 Poshan Vatikas have been developed in convergence with MNREGA. A total of 1028 Poshan Vatikas have been established at 2116 AWCs in Kutch.
  • During April-May 2022, October-November 2022 and February 2023 Master Trainer Training of the POSHAN Tracker Application was conducted.
  • Aadhaar verification of the beneficiaries is done in the POSHAN Tracker application to and so far 97% of the beneficiaries have been Aadhaar verified.
  • Anganwadi workers are also trained on the POSHAN tracker application and thematic sessions on Poshan tracker module have been delivered from time to time
  • Every year September is celebrated as Nutrition Month (Poshan Maah) by the Government of India and special importance is given to various activities related to nutrition and health. A total of 14,02,216 activities were conducted in total in all the constituency of Kutch in September 2022.
  • Community Based Events are celebrated at every Anganwadi centre across the State on the first and third Tuesday of the month. During the year 2022-23, 95% AWCs conducted the two thematic Community-Based Events (CBE). Suposhan Samvad is celebrated on the first Tuesday of every month and Annaprashan is celebrated on the third Tuesday of every month.
  • State Level Sanctioning Committee (SLSC) constituted under the Chairmanship of Chief Secretary holds review meetings to monitor the progress of activities done under Poshan Abhiyan.
  • District Level Monitoring Review Committee has been constituted at the district level and one meeting per quarter is held in all the districts under the chairmanship of Collector/District Magistrate.

In order to assess the outcome of various interventions of the Government to address the issue of malnutrition, data on nutritional indicators is captured regularly under the National Family Health Surveys (NFHS) conducted by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. As per the last two rounds of NFHS, the prevalence of undernutrition has decreased in the Kutch district of Gujarat. The prevalence of stunting, wasting and underweight has reduced from 40.8%, 31.4% and 39% in NFHS-4 (2015-16) to 37.5%, 20.2%, and 33.4% as per NFHS-5 (2019-21).

12-Jan-2023:  8th meeting of Mission Steering Group for NHM

“For the first-time health is being linked with the agenda of development under a holistic approach undertaken by the Union Govt. The pandemic period has provided us an opportunity to strengthen our healthcare infrastructure and delivery systems”. This was stated by Union Minister for Health & Family Welfare Dr Mansukh Mandaviya as he chaired the eighth meeting of Mission Steering Group (MSG) of National Health Mission (NHM), here.

Shri Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of Housing & Urban Affairs, Shri Gajendra Singh Sekhawat, Union Minister of Jal Shakti, Dr Virendra Kumar, Union Minister of Social Justice & Empowerment, Dr. Bharati Pravin Pawar, Minister of State for Health & Family Welfare and Dr V K Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog were also present.

The MSG is the apex decision-making body of NHM that takes decisions on policies and program implementation under the Mission. Secretaries of Ministries of Government of India including MoHFW, AYUSH, School Education & Literacy and senior officers from WCD, Tribal Affairs, Finance & Expenditure, Panchayati Raj, Health Secretaries of State Governments and eminent public health professionals also attended the meeting.

Highlighting the achievements under NHM, Dr Mandaviya stated that “Exceeding the target of 1.50 lakh Ayushman Bharat- Health & Wellness Centres (AB-HWC) by 31 December, 2022, more than 1.54 lakh Sub Health Centres and Primary Health Centres have been transformed as AB-HWCs. In sync with the approach of the National Health Policy 2017 (NHP 2017), AB-HWCs are providing comprehensive primary healthcare closer to the communities. As many as 12 health services packages are available free-of-charge.” He further stated that more than 135 crore footfall has been witnessed at the HWCs.

Dr Mandaviya stressed that while we need to understand global healthcare systems and their best practices, “India can have its own healthcare model which would be aligned to its regional requirements, and customized to the local strengths and challenges”. Moving with the philosophy of Antyodaya, the Government aspires to provide affordable, accessible and quality healthcare services to each individual in every corner of the country, he emphasized.

The MSG was informed about the ‘Holistic Approach’ adopted by NHM encompassing change in programme design to respond to changing health care needs. This includes working with a Saturation Approach; shift from Incremental to Comprehensive approach (Ayush, Tertiary Care & Expanded package); enhancing self-reliance through Diagnostics, Drugs & AI; creating a National Digital Health Ecosystem and future ready & resilient health systems; and shift from MDGs to SDGs.

The MSG was apprised about the achievements made under NHM during the past few years:

  • 1 Lakh AB- HWCs have started providing teleconsultation services through the e-Sanjeevani platform.
  • Technical specification and draft guidelines of HPV vaccine has been approved.
  • 30 Crore ABHA IDs have been created so far and integrated with the National Digital Healthcare Ecosystem.
  • Around 20 Crore AB-PMJAY cards have been created
  • The Pradhan Mantri National Dialysis Program (PMNDP) has been implemented in 630 Districts of 36 States/UTs.
  • Tertiary services are gradually being provided in district hospitals as well.
  • Over 9 lakh TB patients adopted under the Nikshay Mitra initiative.
  • Jal Jeevan Mission has had a significant impact in reducing Malaria cases in the last 4-5 years.

  1. AYURSWASTHYA Yojana
  2. Ayushman Bharat Health Account (number) (ABHA)
  3. Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY)
  4. System for Pensions Administration – RakSHa (SPARSH)
  5. Jeevan Pramaan Patra
  6. Digital Life Certificate