Mission Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0
Recently, the Ministry of Women and Child Development has issued guidelines for ‘Mission Saksham Anganwadi and National Nutrition Campaign 2.0’.
Saksham Anganwadi and Rashtriya Poshan Abhiyan 2.0 is an integrated nutritional support programme. It has been approved for implementation during the 15th Finance Commission period (2021-22 to 2025-28).
Components of the mission –
Nutrition support through Supplementary Nutrition Program in Aspirational Districts and North Eastern Region (NER); early childhood care and education (3-6 years) and early encouragement (0-3 years); Anganwadi infrastructure including modern and advanced efficient Anganwadi; and nutrition campaign.
Key changes-
- Anganwadi services under Poshan Abhiyan 0 are open to all eligible beneficiaries.
- Aadhar card of the child is not mandatory for availing the benefits.
- Under the scheme for Adolescent Girls, the age group of the target beneficiary Adolescent Girls has been amended. Earlier, out-of-school girls in the age group of 11-14 years were targeted. Now all adolescent girls in the age group of 14 to 18 years have been considered as beneficiaries in aspirational districts including Assam and Northeast.
- These guidelines focus on providing supplementary nutrition to the beneficiaries. Also, give preference to locally produced food grains.
- Supply of coarse cereals at least once a week has been made mandatory.
- AYUSH (Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy) system has also been integrated in the scheme.
- The District Magistrate has been made the nodal officer in the district to monitor the nutritional and quantity standards.
- POSHAN Abhiyaan 0 (National Nutrition Mission) was launched in the year 2018.
National Nutrition Mission:
- Launched in 2018, the mission is the flagship program of the Government of India to improve nutritional outcomes for children, pregnant women and lactating mothers.
- The National Nutrition Mission is supported by the National Nutrition Strategy prepared by NITI Aayog. The objective of this strategy is to make India malnutrition free by the year
Goals of this scheme:
- Stunning: To reduce the cases related to it by 2% per year,
- Under–nutrition – to reduce the total cases by 2 per year,
- Anemia (in young children, women, and adolescent girls): reduction of associated cases by 3% per year,
- Low birth weight: To reduce the total cases by 2 per year.
Source – The Hindu
