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 lntegrated Child Development Services Scheme (lCDS) as targeted interventions for children under 6 years, pregnant women and Lactating Mothers and Adolescent Girls, throughout the country. Further, Mission Poshan 2.0, an integrated nutrition support programme has been announced in budget 2021-2022 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. All these schemes address in one or other aspects related to nutrition and have the potential to improve nutritional outcomes in the country.

 

During COVID 19, in order to ensure continuous nutritional support to beneficiaries including children, Anganwadi Workers and Helpers distributed Supplementary Nutrition at the doorsteps of beneficiaries once in 15 days during the Covid-19 pandemic period. To limit the impact of the pandemic, all Anganwadi Centres across the country were closed.  Further, Poshan Pakhwada and POSHAN Maah were conducted during last 3 years, including during the pandemic in hybrid mode. Around 20.32 crore activities were conducted during POSHAN Maah 2021. These included both physical and online activities. Online activities included Webinars, Interactive sessions, Quizzes for children etc.

 

In order to constantly monitor the outcome related to nutrition of women and children, the Government launched the Poshan Tracker management application which provides 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. Simultaneously, the mobile application also digitizes and automates physical registers used by AWWs that helps improving their quality of work.

 

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

 

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