Mission POSHAN

Government is implementing several schemes and programs under the Umbrella Integrated Child Development Services Scheme as direct targeted interventions to address the problem of malnutrition in the country. All these schemes address one or other aspects related to nutrition and have the potential to improve nutritional outcomes in the country.

Malnutrition is not a direct cause of death but contributes to mortality and morbidity by reducing resistance to infections. There are a number of causes of death of children such as prematurity, low birth weight, pneumonia, diarrhoeal diseases, non-communicable diseases, birth asphyxia & birth trauma, injuries, congenital anomalies, acute bacterial sepsis and severe infections, etc.

Prime Minister's Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nutrition (POSHAN) Abhiyaan (National Nutrition Mission) is a flagship programme of the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD), Government of India, which ensures convergence with various programmes i.e., Anganwadi Services, Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY), Scheme for Adolescent Girls (SAG) of MWCD Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY), National Health Mission (NHM), Swachh-Bharat Mission, Public Distribution System (PDS), Department Food & Public Distribution, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) and Ministry of Drinking Water & Sanitation.

About the Mission

The goals of NNM are to achieve improvement in nutritional status of Children from 0-6 years, Adolescent Girls, Pregnant Women and Lactating Mothers in a time bound manner during the next three years beginning 2017-18.

The National Nutrition Mission (NNM) has been set up with a three year budget of Rs.9046.17 crore commencing from 2017-18. The NNM is a comprehensive approach towards raising nutrition level in the country on a war footing. It will comprise mapping of various Schemes contributing towards addressing malnutrition, including a very robust convergence mechanism, ICT based Real Time Monitoring system, incentivizing States/UTs for meeting the targets, incentivizing Anganwadi Workers (AWWs) for using IT based tools, eliminating registers used by AWWs, introducing measurement of height of children at the Anganwadi Centres (AWCs), Social Audits, setting-up Nutrition Resource Centres, involving masses through Jan Andolan for their participation on nutrition through various activities, among others.

Major impact

The programme through the targets will strive to reduce the level of stunting, under-nutrition, anemia and low birth weight babies.

NNM targets to reduce stunting, under- nutrition, anemia (among young children, women and adolescent girls) and reduce low birth weight by 2%, 2%, 3% and 2% per annum respectively. Although the target to reduce Stunting is atleast 2% p.a., Mission would strive to achieve reduction in Stunting from 38.4% (NFHS-4) to 25% by 2022 (Mission 25 by 2022).

It will create synergy, ensure better monitoring, issue alerts for timely action, and encourage States/UT s to perform, guide and supervise the line Ministries and States/UT s to achieve the targeted goals.

Benefits & Coverage

More than 10 crore people will be benefitted by this programme. All the States and districts will be covered in a phased manner i.e. 315 districts in 2017-18, 235 districts in 2018-19 and remaining districts in 2019-20 .

To access the complete National Nutrition Mission: Administrative Guidelines, click here

Mission POSHAN 2.0 

Mission POSHAN 2.0 is an Integrated Nutrition Support Programme. 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. Poshan 2.0 will seek to optimize the quality and delivery of food under the Supplementary Nutrition Program.

Mission Poshan 2.0 will contribute to human capital development of the country; address malnutrition challenges; promote nutrition awareness and good eating habits for sustainable health & well-being and address nutrition related deficiencies through key strategies. Under the programme, nutritional norms and standards and quality and testing of THR will be improved and greater stakeholder and beneficiary participation will be promoted besides traditional community food habits. Poshan 2.0 will bring 3 important programmes/schemes under its ambit, viz., Anganwadi Services, Scheme for Adolescent Girls and Poshan Abhiyaan.

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 fulfil its objectives, viz., Corrective strategies, Nutrition Awareness strategies, Communication strategies and Creation of green eco-systems. The objectives under Mission Poshan 2.0 will be realized through strong interventions-driven convergent activities with key Ministries/Depts./Organizations.

Digital infrastructure under the “Poshan Tracker” rolled out by MoWCD on 1st March 2021 through National e-Governance Division as a governance tool, will strengthen and bring about transparency in nutrition delivery support systems. Technology under Poshan Tracker is being leveraged for (i) dynamic identification of stunting, wasting, under-weight prevalence among children; (ii) last mile tracking of nutrition service delivery.

Source : Poshan Abhiyaan