Rashtriya Poshan Maah 2023 – 6th राष्ट्रीय पोषण माह 1 से 30 सितंबर तक

POSHAN (Prime Minister’s Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nutrition) Abhiyaan is a multi-ministerial convergence mission with a vision to ensure India is malnutrition-free by 2022. The government launched POSHAN Abhiyaan, formerly known as the National Nutrition Mission, on 08 March 2018. To tackle the problem of malnutrition in The country. Abhiyan aims to reduce malnutrition in the country in a gradual manner through a life cycle approach. The Ministry of Women and Child Development is celebrating the 5th Rashtriya Poshan Mah Day 2022 across the country from 01st September to 30 September. The aim is to motivate Poshan Maah through Gram Panchayats like Poshan Panchayats with a major focus on ‘Mahila Aur Swasthya‘ and ‘Bacha aur Shiksha‘.

Now 6th Rashtriya Poshan Maah begins, and the government celebrates it throughout the month of September this year. The central government’s flagship initiative, POSHAN Abhiyaan, has been effective in enhancing the nutritional outcomes of pregnant women, lactating mothers, adolescent girls, and children under six years of age in a comprehensive manner.

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PM POSHAN Abhiyan Scheme

The government has approved the centrally subsidized scheme ‘Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman (PM POSHAN)‘ to provide one cooked hot meal in government and government-subsidized schools from 2021-22 to 2025-26. This scheme is implemented by the Ministry of Education. Under this scheme, a hot cooked meal is provided to the children of pre-school or Pal Vatika (before class 1) in primary schools in addition to 11.80 crore children from grades 1 to 8 studying in 11.20 lakh schools.

The government has been implementing the POSHAN Abhiyaan program, formerly known as the National Nutrition Mission, since December 18, 2017, to address the problem of malnutrition in the country. Abhiyan aims to reduce malnutrition in the country in a gradual manner, through a life-cycle approach, by adopting a synergistic and results-oriented approach. To ensure a comprehensive approach, all areas of the states/United Territories in Abhiyan have been covered.

Highlights of Rashtriya Poshan Maah 2023

Scheme Name	Rashtriya Poshan Maah 2023 राष्ट्रीय पोषण माह
Related Campaigns	National Nutrition Mission campaign
Relevant Departments	Ministry of Women and Child Development
Started	by Prime Minister Narendra Modi
Launched On	March 8, 2018
Schedule Period	From 1st September to 30th September 2023
Beneficiary	Children and adolescent girls below 6 years of age, pregnant women and lactating mothers,
Objective	Nutritional Awareness
Year	2023
Official Website	Click Here

6th Rashtriya Poshan Maah 2023

The Ministry of Women and Child Development will celebrate the 6th Rashtriya Poshan Maah Day throughout the month of September 2023. The aim this year is to comprehensively address malnutrition through a life-cycle approach, which is a cornerstone of the Poshan 2.0 mission. The focal point of Poshan Maah 2023 in this approach is the development of broad awareness regarding the critical stages in human life: pregnancy, lactation, childhood, and adolescence.

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The aim is to enhance nutritional understanding across India through a theme centered on “Suposhit Bharat, Sakshar Bharat, Sashakt Bharat” (Nutrition Rich India, Educated India, Empowered India). Through a range of diverse activities, Poshan Maah 2023 aims to amplify wide community participation, harnessing the potential of the Gram Panchayats and Urban Local Bodies to realize the vision of the Honorable Chief Minister of Suposhit Bharat in Amrit Kal.

“आज बदलते भारत में देश की बहनों-बेटियों को भी आगे बढ़ने के अवसर बढ़ रहे हैं। सभी बहनें घर, शौचालय, बिजली, पानी, गैस आदि सुविधाओं से जुड़ी हैं। सरकार बहनों-बेटियों की शिक्षा, स्वास्थ्य, पोषण, टीकाकरण और अन्य जरूरतों पर भी पूरी संवेदनशीलता के साथ काम कर रही है।”- प्रधानमंत्री नरेंद्र मोदी

POSHAN Abhiyaan 2.0

Mission Poshan 2.0, an integrated nutrition support program that includes the Supplementary Nutrition Programme and Poshan Abhiyaan, has been announced in the 2021-2022 budget for all states/UTs to enhance nutritional content, delivery, awareness, and outcomes with a focus on developing practices that nurture health, wellness, and immunity against disease and malnutrition.

With the aim of addressing the various gaps and shortcomings in the ongoing nutrition program and improving implementation as well as accelerating improvement in nutrition outcomes and child development, the components of the current scheme under Poshan 2.0 into the primary verticals given below:

• Nutrition support for POSHAN through the Supplementary Nutrition Programme (SNP) for children 06 months to 6 years of age, pregnant women and lactating mothers (PWLM); and teenage girls in the age group of 14 to 18 years in the Aspirational Districts and North Eastern Region (NER).
• Early childhood care and education [3-6 years] and early childhood stimulation (0-3 years).
• Infrastructure of Anganwadi including modern and modern Saksham Anganwadi, and Poshan Abhiyan.

The objectives of Poshan 2.0 are as follows:

• Contribute to the development of human capital in the country.
• addressing the challenges of malnutrition.
• promoting nutritional awareness and good eating habits for sustainable health and well-being.
• Addressing nutritional deficiencies through key strategies.

Implementation of the Poshan Abhiyan scheme

The objectives of POSHAN Abhiyaan are to achieve improvement in the nutritional status of children 0-6 years, adolescent girls, pregnant women, and lactating mothers in a time-bound manner over three years with fixed targets as follows:

ICDS Anganwadi Bharti Online Form 2023 – Worker, Helper, Supervisor आंगनवाड़ी भर्ती

S.No	Objective	Target
1.	Prevent and reduce Stunting in children (0- 6 years)	@ 2% p.a.
2.	Prevent and reduce under-nutrition (underweight prevalence) in children (0-6 years)	@ 2% p.a.
3.	Reduce the prevalence of anaemia among young Children (6-59 months)	@ 3% p.a.
4.	Reduce the prevalence of anaemia among Women and Adolescent Girls in the age group of 15-49 years	@ 3% p.a.
5.	Reduce Low Birth Weight (LBW)	@ 2% p.a.

Nutrition and food norms under the scheme are as under:

S. No.	Items	Primary	Upper Primary
Nutrition norm per child per day
1.	Calorie	450	700
2.	Protein	12 gms	20 gms
Food norms per child per day
1.	Food grains	100 gms	150 gms
2.	Pulses	20 gms	30 gms
3.	Vegetables	50 gms	75 gms
4.	Oil & fat	5 gms	7.5 gms
5.	Salt & condiments	As per need	As per need

POSHAN Tracker Mobile Application

One of the main objectives under Poshan Abhiyaan is to utilize technology to monitor and improve service delivery to beneficiaries including children (0-6 years), pregnant women, and lactating mothers. In this direction, the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and Development developed a powerful ICT-enabled platform, “POSHAN Tracker“, and launched it on January 13, 2021. This was done to ensure real-time monitoring to provide supplementary feeding and real-time information for immediate supervision. and service management.

Moreover, for the first time, the Anganwadi workers were provided with 11.75 lakh smartphones. Further, to enhance regular growth monitoring, 12.36 lakh growth monitoring devices (Infant Scale, Stability Scale, Infant Scale, and Mother-Child Scale) were purchased by the States/UTs under the framework of Abhiyan.

Poshan Abhiyan Budget

The budget appropriation (RE) under Poshan Abhiyan from FY 2017-18 to FY 2020-21 is Rs. 11,600.00 Crores. From 2021 to 2022, the scheme is part of Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0. Under Poshan Abhiyaan, total central funds amount to Rs. Rs 5,256.97 crore has been issued since 2017-2018 and states/UTs have used Rs. 3572.18 Crore.

As of 31st December 2021, the number of beneficiaries of the POSHAN Abhiyaan Scheme are as follows:

Beneficiary Category	No. of Beneficiaries
Children (0-6 years)	7,75,66,662
Pregnant Women & Lactating Mothers	1,27,95,327
Adolescent Girls	1,19,76,322

Prevalence of wasting and underweight among children under 5 years of age in the States/UT according to the NFHS survey

S. No.	Name of State/UT	Wasting (%)		Underweight (%)
		NHFS 4(2015-16)	NHFS 5(2019-21)	NHFS 4(2015-16)	NHFS 5(2019-21)
INDIA		21	19.3	35.8	32.1
1	Andaman & Nicobar Islands	18.9	16	21.6	23.7
2	Andhra Pradesh	17.2	16.1	31.9	29.6
3	Arunachal Pradesh	17.3	13.1	19.4	15.4
4	Assam	17	21.7	29.8	32.8
5	Bihar	20.8	22.9	43.9	41
6	Chandigarh	10.9	8.4	24.5	20.6
7	Chhattisgarh	23.1	18.9	37.7	31.3
8	Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu	26.7	21.6	35.8	38.7
9	Delhi	15.9	11.2	27	21.8
10	Goa	21.9	19.1	23.8	24
11	Gujarat	26.4	25.1	39.3	39.7
12	Haryana	21.2	11.5	29.4	21.5
13	Himachal Pradesh	13.7	17.4	21.2	25.5
14	Jammu & Kashmir	12.1	19	16.6	21
15	Jharkhand	29	22.4	47.8	39.4
16	Karnataka	26.1	19.5	35.2	32.9
17	Kerala	15.7	15.8	16.1	19.7
18	Lakshadweep	13.7	17.4	23.6	25.8
19	Ladakh	9.3	17.5	18.7	20.4
20	Madhya Pradesh	25.8	19	42.8	33
21	Maharashtra	25.6	25.6	36	36.1
22	Manipur	6.8	9.9	13.8	13.3
23	Meghalaya	15.3	12.1	28.9	26.6
24	Mizoram	6.1	9.8	12	12.7
25	Nagaland	11.3	19.1	16.7	26.9
26	Orissa	20.4	18.1	34.4	29.7
27	Puducherry	23.6	12.4	22	15.3
28	Punjab	15.6	10.6	21.6	16.9
29	Rajasthan	23	16.8	36.7	27.6
30	Sikkim	14.2	13.7	14.2	13.1
31	Tamil Nadu	19.7	14.6	23.8	22
32	Telangana	18.1	21.7	28.4	31.8
33	Tripura	16.8	18.2	24.1	25.6
34	Uttar Pradesh	17.9	17.3	39.5	32.1
35	Uttarakhand	19.5	13.2	26.6	21
36	West Bengal	20.3	20.3	31.6	32.2

Other initiatives of the Government of India to address malnutrition

PM POSHAN SCHEME, formerly known as the Mid-Day Meal Scheme

The National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education (NP-NSPE) was launched on August 15, 1995, and continues now as a Centrally Supported Scheme (CSS) with the goal of increasing enrollment, attendance, and retention of children attending primary Class (4th to 5th) in government schools, government-supported schools, and localities to provide food support simultaneously. Over the years, the scheme has seen many changes regarding coverage, the amount of food grains, and financial assistance.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has agreed to dispose of chana (pulses) to the states/UTs at a reduced rate for use in various welfare schemes from the stock of pulses purchased under the Price Support Scheme (PSS) and Price Stabilization Fund (PSF) and to promote the maximum quantity of purchases in PSS framework from the current 25% to 40% with respect to Tur, Urad & Masur. This will diversify protein-rich foods allocated under different initiatives, further strengthening the government’s initiatives to combat malnutrition.

Providing fortified rice

Under the wheat-based feeding program in Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 (formerly Integrated Child Development Scheme), fortified rice is allocated to all states/UTs across the country. The Centrally sponsored Pilot Scheme on “Fortification of Rice & its Distribution under Public Distribution System” was approved by the Government of India on 14.02.2019 for a period of three years starting from 2019-20.

Furthermore, in April 2022, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved the supply of fortified rice via the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), and Integrated Child Development Services. (ICDS), former Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman-PM POSHAN [mid-day meal plan (MDM)] and Other Welfare Schemes (OWS) of the Government of India in all states and union territories (UTs) by 2024 in a phased manner. The entire cost of rice fortification (around Rs. 2,700 crore per annum) will be borne by the Government of India as part of the food subsidy until fully implemented in June 2024.

FAQs of Rashtriya Poshan Maah 2023