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Poshan Abhiyaan or the National Nutrition Mission launched in March 2018 has helped to achieve improvement in nutritional status of Children from 0-6 years, Adolescent Girls, Pregnant Women and Lactating Mothers in a time bound manner and to achieve reduction in stunting and wasting in children (0-6 years) as well as reduction in anaemia in women, children and adolescent girls.
The Abhiyaan has been rolled out in 36 States and Union Territories covering 738 Districts. Components under POSHAN Abhiyaan include ICT application, convergence, community mobilization, behavioural change & Jan Andolan, capacity building, incentives and awards and innovations.
Districts of Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu including Ajmer and Thiruvannamalai district are covered under Poshan Abhiyaan. Under the Abhiyaan, a total of 45,65,877 & 34,15,545 beneficiaries are availing services in the States of Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu respectively. Under capacity building component of Poshan Abhiyaan, approx., 10.22 lakh frontline functionaries have been successfully trained. Additionally, approx. 6.61 lakh field functionaries have undergone training through digital platform. Also, till date, 8.3 lakhs Anganwadi Workers and Anganwadi Helpers have been trained in the ICT application (Poshan Tracker).
Government has taken measures 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 also been taken to improve nutritional quality and testing, strengthen delivery and leverage technology under Poshan Tracker to improve governance. Streamlined Guidelines were issued for transparency and accountability in delivery of supplementary nutrition and to track nutritional outcomes on 13.01.2021.
Government has advised States and Union Territories to ensure that the quality of supplementary nutrition conforms to prescribed standards laid down under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 and regulations made there under. States and Union Territories have also been advised to promote use of AYUSH systems for prevention of malnutrition and related diseases.
A programme to support development of Poshan Vatikas at Anganwadi centers to meet dietary diversity gap leveraging traditional knowledge in nutritional practices has also been taken up. As informed by States/UTs, Poshan Vatikas have been developed in 4.37 lakh Anganwadi Centres. Further, during Poshan Pakhwada 2021, 1.10 lakh saplings of medicinal plants were planted.