Union Minister for Women and Child Development Smriti Irani on Tuesday urged all aspirational districts of the country to make a commitment to establish a Poshan Vatika (nutrition garden) during the nutrition month starting from September 1 for the protection of Severe Actual Malnourished (SAM) children.
While inaugurating Poshan 2.0, National Conference, Irani said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants the empowerment of women in all fields and urged states to take up Nutrition Month, starting from September 1.
Addressing the press conference, Irani said, "According to a 2010 World Bank report, India suffered an economic loss of Rs 24,000 crore due to lack of toilets. According to the study of the year 2018, the GDP suffered a decline of four per cent due to malnutrition, but since 2018, even in the midst of the Covid-19 epidemic, a mass movement is going on against malnutrition. Carrying out 16 crore activities with public cooperation... All aspirational districts of the country should be committed to establishing a 'Poshan Vatika' (nutrition garden) during the nutrition month.
"Many have done tremendous work in identifying Severe Actual Malnourished (SAM) children, but only identifying is not enough. They need protection. And only our society can help in that. The number of such children in the country was earlier 80 lakh, which has now come down to 10 lakh. It reflects the honesty of working towards this issue. However, now the states can tell us about the exact number of such children, and how it has been reduced," she added.
"The ministry will also organise awareness programmes to emphasise the importance of early breastfeeding, the need for good nutrition in the first 1,000 days of a child's life, and measures to reduce anaemia in young women and children," she added further.
All you need to know about POSHAN Abhiyaan:
POSHAN Abhiyaan is government's flagship programme to improve nutritional outcomes for children, adolescent Girls, pregnant women and lactating mothers. Launched by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the occasion of International Women’s Day on 8 March, 2018 from Jhunjhunu in Rajasthan, the POSHAN (Prime Minister’s Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nutrition) Abhiyaan directs the attention of the country towards the problem of malnutrition and address it in a mission-mode.
Focusing on the aims of POSHAN Abhiyaan, Mission Poshan 2.0 (Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0) has been announced in the Budget 2021-2022 as an integrated nutrition support programme, to strengthen nutritional content, delivery, outreach and outcomes with focus on developing practices that nurture health, wellness and immunity to disease and malnutrition.
POSHAN Abhiyaan is a Jan Andolan or “People’s Movement” which incorporates inclusive participation of public representatives of local bodies, government departments of the States/UTs, social organizations and the public and private sector at large. In order to ensure community mobilization and bolster people’s participation, every year, the month of September is celebrated as POSHAN Maah across the country.
This year, as India celebrates the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, to ensure speedy& intensive outreach, the entire month has been subdivided into weekly themes for focused and assimilated approach towards improving Holistic Nutrition. The Ministry of Women and Child Development has planned a series of activities throughout the month in tandem with the States/UTs.
The following table highlights the thematic approach being followed this year:
(With inputs from ANI)
