Ministry of Women and Child Development strives to ensure well-being of children by providing them with a safe and secure environment which is accessible, affordable, reliable and free from all forms of discrimination. To achieve these objectives, Ministry has launched important Umbrella Missions encompassing various schemes for development and welfare of children in the country. While schemes for nutrition and health care and development of children are implemented through Mission Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 (Mission Poshan 2.0), schemes for the safety, security and development of children are implemented through Mission Vatsalya. The prime objective of these Missions is to promote inter-ministerial and inter- sectoral convergence to create gender equitable and child centred legislation, policies and programmes.

Mission POSHAN 2.0 is an Integrated Nutrition Support Programme. The Poshan Abhiyaan, Anganwadi Services Scheme and the Scheme for Adolescent Girls have been aligned under this Mission. It seeks to address the challenges of malnutrition in children (upto 6 years) besides adolescent girls (14-18 years), pregnant women and lactating mothers through a strategic shift in nutrition content and delivery and by creation of a convergent eco-system to develop and promote practices that nurture health, wellness and immunity. Poshan 2.0 seeks to optimize the quality and delivery of food under the Supplementary Nutrition Program. The Scheme is designed to address the issue of malnutrition through transparency, accountability, diet diversity and quality, food fortification, greater grassroots involvement and last-mile delivery of services supported by key strategies. Under Poshan 2.0, focus is also on leveraging traditional systems of knowledge and popularizing use of millets.

One of the key components of Poshan 2.0 is Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) and Ministry has developed age appropriate teaching-learning programmes for mental and intellectual stimulation and growth of children in the Anganwadi Centres. Besides, under the Mission, 2 lakh selected Government- owned AWCs @ 40,000 AWCs per year over 5 years would be strengthened, upgraded and rejuvenated for improved nutrition and ECCE delivery.

Under POSHAN Abhiyaan, for the first time, Anganwadi workers have been provided smart phones and Anganwadi Centres have been equipped with Growth Monitoring Devices to promote regular growth monitoring of children. Under the Abhiyaan, IT systems have been leveraged to strengthen and bring about transparency in nutrition delivery support systems through the Poshan Tracker.

The Ministry of Women and Child Development has introduced a Centrally Sponsored Scheme namely, ‘Palna’ under the Mission Shakti for all States/UTs, for providing day care facilities and protection to children. Under Palna, Ministry has extended free services of childcare through Anganwadi-cum-Crèche (AWCC). The objective of Palna component is to provide quality creche facility in safe and secure environment for children (from ages 6 months – 6 years), nutritional support, health and cognitive development of children, growth monitoring, immunization and pre-primary education.

The objective of Mission Vatsalya is to secure a healthy and happy childhood for every child in India; foster a sensitive, supportive and synchronized ecosystem for development of children; provide support for delivering services for children in need and in difficult circumstances across the country; develop context-based solutions for holistic development of children from varied backgrounds; assist States/UTs in delivering the mandate of The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2015 and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

Components under Mission Vatsalya include statutory bodies; service delivery structures; institutional care services; non-institutional community based care; emergency outreach services; training and capacity building.

This information was given by the Minister of Women and Child Development Smt. Annapurna Devi in the Lok Sabha in reply to a question today.

*****

SS/MS

(Release ID: 2043689) Visitor Counter : 326