Age specific Supplementary Nutrition is provided to children at Anganwadi Centres in all States/UTs including in Tamil Nadu as per nutritional norms laid down under National Food Security Act,2013.

The Government is implementing several schemes and programs under the Umbrella Integrated Child Development Services Scheme as direct targeted interventions to address the problem of malnutrition in the country. All these schemes address one or other aspects related to nutrition and have the potential to improve nutritional outcomes in the country. For alleviation of malnutrition, Government has announced Mission Poshan 2.0 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 to improve governance. Government has advised States/UTs to ensure that the quality of supplementary nutrition conforms to prescribed standards laid down under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 and regulations made there under. States/UTs have been advised to promote use of AYUSH systems for prevention of malnutrition and related diseases. Streamlining Guidelines on Quality Assurance, Roles and responsibilities of duty holders, procedure for procurement, integrating Ayush concepts and Data Management and Monitoring through 'Poshan tracker' for transparency, efficiency and accountability in delivery of Supplementary Nutrition has also been issued on 13th January 2021. 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.

For creating awareness on nutrition and healthy diets, focus on behavioural change through community based events and Jan Andolan has been an important component under Poshan Abhiyaan. In order to strengthen the processes for community engagement, empowerment of beneficiaries and increased social accountability, provisions are made for organizing community based events (CBEs) by each Anganwadi Centre.  Further, four Poshan Maahs and four Poshan Pakhwadas have been held since the launch of the Abhiyan, witnessing more than 40 crore activities of community participation and mobilisation.

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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