NEW DELHI: The Government of India is celebrating Rashtriya Poshan Maah from 1st to 30th September, 2024 as part of Mission Poshan 2.0 to create malnutrition free India. The focus areas for the month are: Anaemia; Growth Monitoring, Complementary feeding, and Poshan Bhi Padhai Bhi; Technology for better governance; and Environment protection.
Improving nutrition outcomes through strategies of Social & Behaviour Change Communication (SBCC) and Community Mobilization is an important focus of Mission Poshan 2.0. Under the scheme, SBCC efforts are geared towards addressing the social determinants of a variety of thematic areas taken up to support Nutrition. Simultaneously, efforts are also being made to strengthen processes for community engagement, and empowerment of beneficiaries and communities at large.
Jan Andolans are celebrated annually in form of Poshan Maah (1st- 30th September) and Poshan Pakhwada (fortnight of March), and through 6 each of Poshan Maah and Poshan Pakhwada held so far since 2018, there have been reported more than 100 crore nutrition-centric sensitisation activities under various themes.
For the ensuing Poshan Maah 2024, some of the following themes will be taken up in convergence with around 20 Ministries/ Departments and varied stakeholders, officials and field functionaries from National upto AWC levels:
Theme 1: Anemia
Anemia is a health concern, mainly affecting young children, adolescent girls, pregnant, postpartum women and women in the reproductive age. The period of adolescence is the right window of opportunity to correct any nutritional pitfalls in young adolescents to prevent intergenerational effects of anemia on future generations. Anemia has always been one of the key focus areas under Jan Andolans and around 8 crore sensitisation activities on Anemia have been reported so far.
In the last Poshan Maah held in September, 2023, more than 35 crore sensitisation activities have been reported, of which around 4 crore were focused around Anemia.
Theme 2: Growth Monitoring
Monthly Growth Monitoring of target children is one of the key intervention areas of Mission Poshan 2.0. It helps tracking a child's growth pattern over time through WHO growth charts which are essential tools used to monitor children's growth and development. By comparing a child's measurements to these reference standards, Anganwadi Workers can assess whether the child's growth is typical, identify deviations, and determine the child's nutritional status.
The detailed tracking provided by the Poshan Tracker enables timely identification of growth issues, and facilitating early intervention. This is crucial for implementing targeted nutritional and health interventions, such as additional supplementary nutrition, or medical assessments to address potential health problems.
Theme 3: Complementary Feeding
After/ around the age of 6 months, an infant's need for energy and nutrients starts to exceed what is provided by breast milk, and complementary foods are necessary to meet those needs. An infant of this age is also developmentally ready for other foods than Mother‟s Milk. During the period of complementary feeding, children are at high risk of undernutrition. Sensitization of the community about the time of initiation, nutritional quality, quantity and frequency of complimentary feeding will help to ensure healthy growth of children.
Theme 4: Poshan Bhi Padhai Bhi (PBPB)
With the launch of Poshan Bhi Padhai Bhi (PBPB) on 10th May 2023, the Ministry of Women and Child Development aims to a pathbreaking Early Childhood Care & Education (ECCE) program to help India develop the world‟s largest, universal, high-quality pre-school network at AWCs, in alignment with the new National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
To further strengthen the Early Childhood Development domain of the Mission Poshan 2.0, two new learning frameworks for early childhood education have also been launched viz. “Navchetna- National Framework for Early Childhood Stimulation for Children from Birth to Three Years, 2024” and “Aadharshila- National Curriculum for Early Childhood Care and Education for Children from Three to Six Years 2024”.
