Rashtriya Poshan Maah

The Rashtriya Poshan Maah is being celebrated during the month of September every year under POSHAN Abhiyaan (PM’s Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nourishment), which was launched in 2018.

Background

POSHAN Abhiyaan is Government of India’s flagship programme to improve nutritional outcomes for children under 6 years of age, pregnant women and lactating mothers. Launched by Hon’ble Prime Minister, POSHAN (Prime Minister’s Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nutrition) Abhiyaan aims to address the challenge of malnutrition in a mission-mode. Focusing on the aims of POSHAN Abhiyaan, Mission Poshan 2.0 (Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0) has been launched as an integrated nutrition support program to strengthen nutritional content, delivery, outreach and outcomes with focus on developing practices that nurture health, wellness and immunity to disease and malnutrition. During the 15th Financial Commission period, Poshan Abhiyaan, the Anganwadi Services Scheme and the Scheme for Adolescent Girls were aligned under Mission Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2. to launch an integrated nutrition support programme aimed at strengthening content, delivery, outreach, and outcomes The focus remains on cultivating practices that foster health, wellness, and immunity against diseases and malnutrition.

National Nutrition Mission named as the Hon’ble Prime Minister’s overarching scheme for Holistic Nutrition –POSHAN Abhiyaan was launched as a multi-ministerial convergence mission, with the overarching vision to make India malnutrition free. In order to ensure community mobilization and bolster people’s participation, every year, the month of September is celebrated as POSHAN Maah across the country. Poshan Abhiyaan overall intends to increase nutritional awareness and responsiveness among mothers of young children, adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women, family members including husbands, father, mothers-in-law and community members, health care providers (ANM, ASHA, Anganwadi worker) about vital nutrition behaviours.

Objective

The objective of the Poshan Maah is to ensure community mobilisation and bolster people’s participation for addressing malnutrition amongst young children, and women and to ensure health and nutrition for everyone.

Stakeholders

Ministry of Women and Child Development, being the nodal Ministry for POSHAN Abhiyan, is celebrating the Poshan Maah in convergence with partner Ministries and departments, at  National, States/UTs, Districts, and grass root level.

POSHAN Maah 2023

This year, the objective is to comprehensively tackle malnutrition through a life-cycle approach, the cornerstone of Mission Poshan 2.0. Anchored in this approach, the focal point of Poshan Maah 2023 is to cultivate widespread awareness concerning critical human life stages: pregnancy, infancy, childhood, and adolescence. The aim is to foster nutritional understanding across India through a theme centered on "Suposhit Bharat, Sakshar Bharat, Sashakt Bharat" (Nutrition-rich India, Educated India, Empowered India).

This month-long event will witness concentrated efforts nationwide to enhance ground-level nutritional awareness through campaigns focusing on key themes around Exclusive Breastfeeding and Complementary Feeding. Activities like Swasth Balak Spardha (Healthy Child Competition) aim to instill a spirit of healthy competition for nutrition and overall well-being.

Other initiatives would include Poshan Bhi Padhai Bhi (Nutrition as well as Education), Improving Nutrition through Mission LiFE (Lifestyle for Environment), Tribal-Focused Nutrition Sensitization, and addressing Anemia through Test, Treat, Talk. Additionally, the Jan Andolan movement under Poshan Maah will serve as an extended platform for united celebration under the 'Meri Mati Mera Desh' campaign, commemorating the nation's journey of freedom and progress.

Outreach programs, identification drives, camps, and home visits will be conducted at the village, block, and district levels, engaging diverse segments of the community to spread awareness about holistic nutrition. Encouraging nutrition-seeking behaviour at both the individual and community levels stands as a pivotal component in realizing the goals of the Abhiyaan. This objective continues to be pursued through Mission Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0.

Through an array of diverse activities, Poshan Maah 2023 aims to amplify community involvement on a large scale, harnessing the potential of Gram Panchayats and Urban Local Bodies to fulfil Honourable Prime Minister's vision of a Suposhit Bharat in the Amrit Kaal.

POSHAN Tracker

The Ministry of Women and Child Development has rolled out Poshan Tracker application. The goal is to follow nutrition systems strengthening approach for improving maternal and child undernutrition, focused on strengthening implementation bottlenecks at all levels. The Poshan Tracker is built using centralized data architecture, that also aligns with the digital technology systems of other ministries and programs. The system provides a digital identity to each beneficiary through a digital card, and allows convergence of call centre with the technology platform. The system generates automated alerts to the critical last-mile beneficiaries. It also ensures efficient audit of the delivery system, by documenting real time attendance of beneficiaries and duty bearers. Such a robust digital technology platform and management information system, will help the mission to scale efficiently, thereby generating and documenting significant positive impact.

The purpose of POSHAN Tracker application is to provide a 360-degree view of the activities of the Anganwadi Centre (AWC), service deliveries of Anganwadi Workers (AWWs) and complete beneficiary management for pregnant women, lactating mothers and children. The proposed system should enable real-time monitoring and tracking of all AWCs, AWWs and beneficiaries on the defined indicators. 

Poshan Tracker App is meant for Aanganwadi workers, Anganwadi centers to enter beneficiaries data in the forms. It is not at all developed for general public.

Poshan Tracker App is available over Google playstore. To download, click here .

Knowledge resources

• Assessment of growth in children
• Identify Stunting and Wasting, Learn to Prevent Malnutrition in Children
• Preparation during pregnancy for newborn care and family planning
• Preventing illnesses to avert malnutrition and death
• Preventing anemia in women
• Identifying and Preventing Severe Acute Malnutrition
• Kangaroo Mother Care
• Birth Preparedness for Institutional and Home Delivery
• Ensuring that complementary feeding improves over time
• Observing Breastfeeding In Newborn Babies Why and How

Source : POSHAN Tracker