POSHAN Abhiyaan is the flagship programme of Government of India was launched by Hon'ble Prime Minister on 8th March 2018 in Jhunjhunu district of Rajasthan. The focus of Abhiyaan is to lay emphasis on nutritional status of adolescent girls, pregnant women, lactating mothers and children from 0-6 years of age.
The Abhiyaan is focusing on converting the agenda of improving nutrition into a Jan Andolan through involvement of Panchayati Raj Institutions/Villages Organizations/SHGs/volunteers etc. and ensuring wide public participation. States/UTs are carrying out IEC activities on regular basis.
Poshan Panchayats, shall meet and discuss reasons for malnutrition specific to their jurisdiction and facilitate necessary community/social support mechanism, every month.
The meetings of the Poshan Panchayat shall be attended by local stakeholders, including Mothers Groups’, SHGs, AWWs, AWHs, Lady Supervisor and the DPO and CDPO.
The outcome of nutritional activities and its impact on the status of the village shall determine the eligibility of the Poshan Panchayat for the Kuposhan Mukt Village National Annual Award.
Community Based Events (CBEs)
In order to strengthen processes for community engagement, empowerment of beneficiaries and behavioural change towards better nutrition, the POSHAN Abhiyaan will provide for the organization of four Community Based Events (CBEs) per month by each Anganwadi Centre and supported with an amount of ₹850/- total.
Under Community Based Events, Suposan Samvad (specifically focused on orienting husbands), Annaprashan Diwas, Baltula Diwas for measuring height/weight of children and PURNA cum THR distribution Diwas celebrating at AWC, messages related to public health for improvement of nutrition and to reduce illness, importance of hand-wash and sanitation, prevention of anemia, importance of nutritious food, diet diversity etc. will be covered.
Jan Andolan
Poshan Maah and Poshan Pakhwada: Since the launch of POSHAN Abhiyaan in March 2018, these events have helped in reaching out to communities through the nation’s biggest nutrition-centric annual Jan Andolans. The month of September is celebrated as Rashtriya Poshan Maah across the country. Similarly, in/around March every year, Poshan Pakhwada is celebrated.
The Poshan Maah and Poshan Pakhwada celebrated so far have witnessed wide participation and enthusiasm from convergent Ministries, States/UTs and field functionaries. Frontline workers, community groups, PRIs, staff at Block and District level, State departments and Ministries had exemplified diligent work towards triggering a Jan Andolan for POSHAN Abhiyaan.
Incentives and Awards
Incentives:
There is a provision of incentives for the field functionaries against expected regular tasks as specified in guidelines issued to States/UTs by MoWCD. This remains continued @ ₹500/- and @ ₹250/- per month for AWW and AWH respectively. States/UTs shall refer to the guidelines issued by MWCD for eligibility criteria for the same.
Under Saksham Anganwadi, there has also been provisioned an incentive for ‘Kuposhan Mukt Villages’ @ ₹10 crore per annum which will be distributed to qualified villages/panchayats @ ₹1 lakh each.
Awards:
Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD) recognizes significant contributions of various stakeholders especially the Field Functionaries. There has been provision for 100 awards for AWWs @ ₹50,000/- and 50 awards for AWHs @ ₹40,000/-.
Technology – Procurement of Smartphones and GMDs
The Abhiyaan empowers the frontline functionaries i.e. Anganwadi workers and Lady Supervisors by providing them with smartphones. The digital platform, viz., “Poshan Tracker", will provide services and inter linkages and promote real time data with analytics.
Poshan Tracker
IT systems are being leveraged to strengthen and bring about transparency in nutrition delivery support systems. The ‘Poshan Tracker’ application was rolled out by MoWCD on 1st March 2021 through National e-Governance Division (NeGD), MyGov as an important governance tool. Technology under the Poshan Tracker is being leveraged for dynamic identification of stunting, wasting, under-weight prevalence among children and last mile tracking of nutrition service delivery.
The POSHAN Tracker will enable real-time monitoring and tracking of all AWCs, AWWs and beneficiaries on defined indicators. Beneficiaries will be Aadhaar seeded to ensure last mile tracking and delivery of services. Poshan Tracker will help Mission Poshan 2.0 in generating data, providing feedback to Program Managers and documenting the impact of scheme on nutrition indicators. The Ministry/ States/ Districts will be able to make effective and timely interventions based on the data from the Poshan Tracker, thereby facilitating continuous evaluation and the progress of different components.
Convergence with Ministries/Departments/Organizations
A detailed Convergence Matrix indicating roles and responsibilities of key Ministries/Departments/ Organizations including Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) and NeGD, MeiTY (for development of ICT systems) has been worked out to ensure that all services on health care, water, sanitation, hygiene, early education of children, mothers’ education, food fortification, leveraging traditional systems of knowledge, etc., converge on a household, for reducing under nutrition.
MoWCD shall engage with Ministries/Depts. through MoUs, for specific activities highlighted in the Convergence Matrix.
