The Government has approved the Centrally Sponsored Scheme ‘Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman (PM POSHAN)’ for providing one hot cooked meal in Government and Government – aided Schools from 2021-22 to 2025-26. The Scheme is being implemented by the Ministry of Education. Under the Scheme, there is provision of hot cooked meal to children of pre-schools or Bal Vatika (before class I) in primary schools also in addition to the 11.80 crore children of classes I to VIII studying in 11.20 lakh schools. The Scheme is implemented across the country covering all the eligible children without any discrimination of gender and social class. The main objectives of the PM POSHAN Scheme (earlier known as Mid-Day Meal Scheme) are to address two of the pressing problems for majority of children in India, viz. hunger and education by improving the nutritional status of eligible children in Government and Government-aided schools as well as encouraging poor children, belonging to disadvantaged sections, to attend school more regularly and help them concentrate on classroom activities. Nutrition and food norms under the scheme are as under:

S. No.	Items	Primary	Upper Primary
Nutrition norm per child per day
1.	Calorie	450	700
2.	Protein	12 gms	20 gms
Food norms per child per day
1.	Food grains	100 gms	150 gms
2.	Pulses	20 gms	30 gms
3.	Vegetables	50 gms	75 gms
4.	Oil & fat	5 gms	7.5 gms
5.	Salt & condiments	As per need	As per need

 

BE for 2021-22 is Rs 11,500 crore, however, the RE has been reduced to 10233.75 crore as per the outlay appraised by Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC) and approved by Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA). The same is likely to be sufficient as per the existing norms as progressively schools are being reopened. Accordingly, the same is proposed as BE for 2022-23.

Government launched POSHAN Abhiyaan (Prime Minister's Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nutrition) on 8^th March 2018 to address the problem of malnutrition in the country. The goals of POSHAN Abhiyaan 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 with fixed targets as under:

 

S.No	Objective	Target
1.	Prevent and reduce Stunting in children (0- 6 years)	@ 2% p.a.
2.	Prevent and reduce under-nutrition (underweight prevalence) in children (0-6 years)	@ 2% p.a.
3.	Reduce the prevalence of anaemia among young Children (6-59 months)	@ 3% p.a.
4.	Reduce the prevalence of anaemia among Women and Adolescent Girls in the age group of 15-49 years	@ 3% p.a.
5.	Reduce Low Birth Weight (LBW)	@ 2% p.a.

 

The Abhiyaan aims to reduce malnutrition in the country in a phased manner, through a life cycle approach, by adopting a synergized and result oriented approach.

 

As per the report (2020) of the United Nations Development Programme entitled “Charting pathways out of multidimensional poverty: Achieving the SDGs,” the incidence of multidimensional poverty in India has significantly reduced from 55.1% in 2005 to 27.9% in 2015–2016.

 

The Government has accorded high priority to the issue of malnutrition and is making serious efforts to address this issue. Government implements Anganwadi Services Scheme, POSHAN Abhiyaan, Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana and Scheme for Adolescent Girls under the Umbrella Integrated Child Development Services Scheme (ICDS) as targeted interventions for Children under 6 years, Pregnant Women and Lactating Mothers and Adolescent Girls, throughout the country. POSHAN Abhiyaan aims to reduce malnutrition in a phased manner, through a life cycle approach, by adopting a synergised and result oriented approach. All these schemes address in one or other aspects related to nutrition and have the potential to improve nutritional outcomes in the country.

Further, Mission Poshan 2.0, an integrated nutrition support programme has been announced in budget 2021-22 for all States/UTs. It seeks 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 been taken to improve nutritional quality and testing in accredited labs, strengthen delivery and leverage technology under Poshan Tracker to improve governance. States/UTs have 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 Centres to meet dietary diversity gap leveraging traditional knowledge in nutritional practices has also been taken up. Guidelines were issued for transparency and accountability in delivery of supplementary nutrition and to track nutritional outcomes on 13.01.2021.

This information was given by the Union Minister of Women and Child Development, Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani, in a written reply in Lok Sabha today.

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AS

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