Poshan Abhiyaan Or National Nutrition Mission

Introduction to Poshan Abhiyaan or National Nutrition Mission

• There are a number of schemes directly/indirectly affecting the nutritional status of children (0-6 years of age) and pregnant women and lactating mothers. In spite of these, the level of malnutrition and related problems in the country is high.
• There is no dearth of schemes but a lack of creating synergy and linking the schemes with each other to achieve a common goal.
• NNM through robust convergence mechanism and other components would strive to create synergy.
• NITI Aayog has played a critical role in shaping the POSHAN Abhiyaan. The National Nutrition Strategy, released by NITI Aayog in September 2017, presented a micro-analysis of the problems persisting in the nutrition domain and chalked out an in-depth strategy for course correction. Most of the recommendations presented in the Strategy document were subsumed within the design of POSHAN Abhiyaan.
• The National Nutrition Mission (NNM) started from 2017-18 with a three-year budget of Rs.9046.17 crore.

Features of Poshan Abhiyaan or National Nutrition Mission:

• The Prime Minister’s Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nourishment (POSHAN Abhiyaan), or the National Nutrition Mission, is the flagship programme of the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD).
• It is a mission mode project to improve nutritional outcomes for children, pregnant women, and lactating mothers.
• The programme was launched by Prime Minister Sh. Narendra Modi on March 8, 2018, on the occasion of International Women’s Day from Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan.
• It ensures convergence with various programmes i.e.,

1. Anganwadi Services,
2. Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY),
3. Scheme for Adolescent Girls (SAG) of MWCD
4. Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY),
5. National Health Mission (NHM),
6. Swachh-Bharat Mission,
7. Public Distribution System (PDS),
8. Department Food & Public Distribution,
9. Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) and
10. Ministry of Drinking Water & Sanitation.

• Focusing on the aims of POSHAN Abhiyaan, Mission Poshan 2.0 (SakshamAnganwadi 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 a focus on developing practices that nurture health, wellness, and immunity to disease and malnutrition.
• The NNM, as an apex body, will monitor, supervise, fix targets and guide the nutrition-related interventions across the Ministries.

Critical Analysis of Poshan Abhiyaan:

• The programme through the targets will strive to reduce the level of stunting, under-nutrition, anemia and low birth weight babies.
• It will create synergy, ensure better monitoring, issue alerts for timely action, and encourage States/UTs to perform, guide, and supervise the line Ministries and States/UTs to achieve the targeted goals.
• It will comprise mapping of various Schemes contributing towards addressing malnutrition, including

1. a very robust convergence mechanism,
2. ICT based Real-Time Monitoring system,
3. incentivizing States/UTs for meeting the targets,
4. incentivizing Anganwadi Workers (AWWs) for using IT-based tools,
5. eliminating registers used by AWWs,
6. introducing measurement of the height of children at the Anganwadi Centres (AWCs),
7. Social Audits,
8. setting-up Nutrition Resource Centres, involving masses through Jan Andolan for their participation in nutrition through various activities, among others.

• It will create synergy, ensure better monitoring, issue alerts for timely action, and encourage States/UT s to perform, guide, and supervise the line Ministries and States/UT s to achieve the targeted goals.

Benefits & Coverage Of National Nutrition Mission(Poshan Abhiyan):

• More than 10 crore people will be benefitted from this programme. All the States and districts will be covered in a phased manner i.e. 315 districts in 2017-18, 235 districts in 2018-19, and remaining districts in 2019-20.

Financial Outlay for Poshan Abhiyan:

• An amount of Rs. 9046.17 crore will be expended for three years commencing from 2017-18.
• This will be funded by Government Budgetary Support (50%) and 50% by IBRD or other MDB.
• Government budgetary support would be 60:40 between Centre and States/UTs, 90:10 for NER and the Himalayan States, and 100% for UTs without legislature.
• Total Government of India share over a period of three years would be Rs. 2849.54 crore.

Implementation strategy and targets to Poshan Abhiyan:

• Implementation strategy would be based on intense monitoring and Convergence Action Plan right up to the grass-root level.
• NNM will be rolled out in three phases from 2017-18 to 2019-20. NNM targets to reduce stunting, undernutrition, anemia (among young children, women and adolescent girls) and reduce low birth weight by 2%, 2%, 3%, and 2% per annum respectively.
• Although the target to reduce Stunting is at least 2% p.a., Mission would strive to achieve a reduction in Stunting from 38.4% (NFHS-4) to 25% by 2022 (Mission 25 by 2022).