Ministry of Women and Child Development
NUTRITION TO CHILDREN UNDER POSHAN ABHIYAAN
Posted On: 09 DEC 2022 6:51PM by PIB Delhi
Nutritional support is provided to children (6 months to 6 years) under the Supplementary Nutrition Programme of Anganwadi Services Scheme, a component of Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 or Mission Poshan 2.0 (earlier ICDS). This is an integrated nutrition support programme approved in 2022 which aligns the key sub-components of Angawadi Services and Poshan Abhiyaan.
Supplementary Nutrition is provided as per the nutritional norms specified under the National Food Security Act. Under Poshan 2.0, focus is on diet diversity, food fortification, leveraging traditional systems of knowledge and popularizing use of millets. Nutrition awareness strategies under Poshan 2.0 aim to develop sustainable health and well-being with focus on local, wholesome foods to bridge dietary gaps.
The implementation of the Supplementary Nutrition Programme of Anganwadi Services Scheme under Poshan 2.0 is vested with States Governments.
However, in order to streamline procurement and supply of nutrition under the Supplementary Nutrition Programme, Government has issued Streamlined Guidelines to all States/UTs on 13.01.2021, which also cover issues related to quality assurance, supply chain management, roles and responsibilities of duty holders and procedure for procurement for transparency, efficiency and accountability in delivery of supplementary nutrition. These guidelines recommend that supply chain process in the States must be made transparent for functionaries to ensure uninterrupted supply to the last mile, which are compliant with FSSAI registration-licensing process for entities involved in manufacture, storage and distribution of food to ensure food safety and hygiene.
POSHAN Abhiyaan seeks to achieve improvement in nutritional status of Children under 6 years, Adolescent Girls, Pregnant Women and Lactating Mothers. IT systems have therefore been leveraged to strengthen and bring about transparency in nutrition delivery support systems. The ‘Poshan Tracker’ application was rolled out by this Ministry on 1stMarch 2021 through National e-Governance Division (NeGD), as an important governance tool. Technology under Poshan Tracker is being leveraged for dynamic identification of stunting, wasting, under-weight prevalence among children; and last mile tracking of nutrition service delivery.
The Poshan Tracker facilitates near real-time monitoring and tracking of all AWCs, AWWs and beneficiaries on defined indicators. Beneficiaries are being Aadhar seeded to ensure last mile tracking and delivery of services. Poshan Tracker will help Mission Poshan 2.0 in generating data, providing feedback to Program Managers and documenting the impact of scheme on nutrition indicators. The Ministry/ States/ Districts can thus make effective timely interventions, based on the data from tracker and evaluate the progress of different components.
This information was given by the Union Minister for Women & Child Development, Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today.
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