Poshan Abhiyaan implementation prime focus of WCD Ministry in 2019

With malnutrition responsible for two-thirds of child deaths in India, the national nutrition mission was a prime focus of the Women and Child Development (WCD) Ministry in 2019.

In her first year as the WCD Minister Smriti Irani paid special attention towards effective implementation of the Poshan Abhiyaan, a programme launched with the aim of reducing levels of stunting, undernutrition, anaemia and low birth weight in children.

Irani travelled to nine states after assuming charge and met the chief ministers to review the implementation of the Poshan Abhiyaan.

The ministry collaborated with Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), to launch the Bharatiya Poshan Krishi Kosh, which will be a repository of diverse crops across 128 agro-climatic zones in India for better nutritional outcomes.

At the behest of the ministry, the Harvard T H Chan School of Public Health through its India Research Centre and BMGF will document and evaluate promising regional dietary practices and the messaging around them, and develop a food atlas on regional agro-food systems.

In consultation with the ministry and BMGF, the project team will select around 12 high-focus states which are representative of the geographical, social, economic, cultural and structural diversities of India.

In each state or group of states, the team will identify a local partner organisation that has relevant work experience in social and behaviour change communication and nutrition for developing the food atlas.

The month of September was celebrated as 'Poshan Maah' under which, ministry officials said, 3.6 crore nutrition-related activities were held in the country.

Fund allocation under the Poshan Abhiyaan has increased in the last three years from Rs 950 crore in 2017-18 to Rs 3061.30 crore in 2018-19 and to Rs 3,400 crore in 2019-20.

Under the national nutrition mission, frontline functionaries like anganwadi workers and lady supervisors were given smart phones with the ICDS-Common Application Software (CAS) to capture data of children, and pregnant and lactating women