The 7^th Rashtriya Poshan Maah, launched on 31^stAugust 2024 at Mahatma Mandir, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, focuses on key themes such as Anaemia, Growth Monitoring, Complementary Feeding, and Poshan Bhi Padhai Bhi, along with Technology for better governance. The campaign also emphasizes environmental sustainability through the Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam initiative in which plantation is encouraged across all the operational 13.95 lakh Anganwadi centres.

As of the 6^th day of the nation-wide celebrations, 1.37 crore activities have been reported from 752 districts of 35 States/ UTs. Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh are among the top contributing States so far.

In terms of Themes (or the Key Focus Areas), as on date over 39 lakh activities have been conducted on Anemia, over 27 lakh activities on Growth Monitoring, almost 20 lakh activities on Complementary Feeding, over 18.5 lakh activities on Poshan Bhi Padhai Bhi, and 8 lakh activities on environmental sustainability through Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam. One of the key focus areas namely Technology for Better Governance has encouraged the designated functionaries of WCD to mark more than 10 lakh activities which aims to help in effective implementation and monitoring of nutrition indicators and programmatic areas at large, linked to the ICT application Poshan Tracker.

Convergence with Ministries/ Departments has always been the core of Jan Andolans since nation’s first nutrition-centric Jan Andolans started in 2018. Convergence helps reaching out to a variety of audience especially  the grassroots. As on date, top contributing Ministries to the ongoing Poshan Maah have been Ministry of Education (MoE) with 1.38 lakh activities, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoH&FW) with 1.17 lakh activities, Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) with 1.07 lakh activities, Ministry of Ayush with 69 thousand activities, and Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MoPR) with 64 lakh activities in support of one or the other theme of Poshan Maah 2024.

In addition to the activities mapped against each of the Thematic areas, though States/ UTs are free to take up other sensitisation activities that suits best in their local environment, the top reported activities so far comprises of Anemia camp for children, Anemia camp for adolescent girls (14-18 years), Sensitisation session on Growth Monitoring promotion, Growth measurement verification, Anemia camp for women in reproductive age, Growth measurement drive (SAM/ MAM screening), Activity/ camp on Complementary Feeding (safe, adequate and appropriate complementary foods at 6 months), Urban slums based anemia camp cum outreach activities, Demonstration session on cooking complementary food recipes through local food items, SHG, NSS/ NYK etc. related outreach activities on anemia, Awareness camp for dietary diversity in Complementary feeding, Shiksha Choupal exclusively to promote ECCE learning corners at AWCs, EK Ped Maa Ke Naam - Plantation along with Pledge on environment protection, Demonstration session/activity for children and parents on play-based learning promoting indigenous toys, Urban slums based Growth measurement drive (SAM/ MAM screening), TOYathon - DIY/ Indigenous toy making workshop with AWWs, Community centered khelo aur padho event to promote toy-based and play-based learning, Measurement drive for weight gain of pregnant women (gestational weight gain) and its data entry in Poshan Tracker, Food Resourse Mapping on the floor of AWC to highlight different food available within the boundary of the village, and Outreach activities on environment protection with relevant experts 

With the nationwide integrated approach involving community participation and government collaboration, the ongoing Poshan Maah is creating a buzz around “Suposhit Kishori Sashakt Nari” while reaching out to the remotest areas of the country in order to engage and sensitise every single individual through nutrition-centric Jan Andolans.

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SS/MS