Poshan 2.0

Context

Every year from 1 to 7 September, the National Nutrition Week is celebrated in India, to generate mass awareness about the need for pursuing nutrition and inculcate habits of healthy eating.

National Nutrition Week 2021: Theme

• This year’s theme for National Nutrition Week is ‘Feeding Smart Right from Start’.
• The union government has launched a programme for disseminating accurate information to generate public awareness by tapping into seminars and workshops.

National Nutrition: The Approach

• The problem of malnutrition in the country, including the stunting and wasting in the children of age group under 5 years of age.
• The government implements several schemes and programmes such as
  • Anganwadi Services
  • Scheme for Adolescent Girls
  • Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana under the Umbrella Integrated Child Development Services Scheme as direct targeted interventions. 

• The government also set up POSHAN Abhiyaan, 

  • which aims to prevent and reduce the prevalence of stunting, underweight and anaemia among children (0-6 years).
  • Reduction in the prevalence of low birth weight in the country through ‘Jan Andolan’ involving Panchayati raj institutions/village organizations, among others.

Focus of the Poshan 2.0

• The POSHAN Abhiyaan aims to make India a malnutrition-free country by 2022. 
• The mission POSHAN 2.0 focuses on strengthening nutritional content, outreach, delivery, and outcomes by developing practices that improve health, wellness, and immune response to disease and malnutrition.
• The focus is on the 1,000 days between a mother’s pregnancy and her child’s second birthday, prioritising women and girls, and addressing their nutritional deficiencies through fortification and provision of take-home rations.
• It focuses on informing about the benefits of a nutritional diet, from the stage of birth by driving various initiatives.

Child malnutrition in India

• The first National Family Health Survey (NFHS) in 1992-1993 found that India was one of the worst performing countries on child health indicators.

  • The survey reported that more than half the children under four were underweight and stunted. 
  • One in every six children was excessively thin (wasted).
• India’s child malnutrition rates are still one of the most alarming in the world. 
• The bane of child and maternal malnutrition is responsible for 15 per cent of India’s total disease burden.
• The fourth round of NFHS, conducted in 2015-2016, found that the prevalence of underweight, stunted and wasted children under five was at 35.7, 38.4 and 21.0 per cent.
• The fifth round of NFHS (2019-2021) from the 22 states surveyed so far, 
  • only nine showed a decline in the number of stunted children, 
  • 10 in wasted children
  • six in underweight children

Related Government Initiatives

• Anemia Mukt Bharat Abhiyan
• Mid-day Meal (MDM) scheme
• The National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013
• Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY)