4th meeting of National Council on India’s Nutrition Challenges under POSHAN Abhiyan held today

4th meeting of National Council on India’s Nutrition Challenges under POSHAN Abhiyan held today 

The Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India held the 4th meeting of National Council on India’s Nutrition Challenges under POSHAN Abhiyaan today, 12th February, 2019 under the Chairmanship of Vice- Chairman, NITI Aayog. Shri Ram Vilas Paswan, Minister of Food and Public Distribution, Dr.Virendra Kumar, Minister of State in the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Dr.Vinod K. Paul, Member, Health & Nutrition, NITI Aayog and Smt Anupama Jaiswal, Minister of Social Welfare, Government of U.P participated in the meeting. Secretaries/representatives of the line Departments and Secretaries/ representatives of State Government also participated.

During the half day meeting, Ministry of Women and Child Development has gave an account of action taken on the recommendations of the last meeting of the National Council on India’s Nutrition Challenges and also on the recommendations of the 4th& 5th meetings of Executive Committee held on 3rd December, 2018 and 22nd January, 2019 respectively. The detailed report on progress in implementation of POSHAN Abhiyaan was also presented by MWCD before the Council.

The Government of India has set-up POSHAN Abhiyaan (National Nutrition Mission) which was launched by the Hon’ble Prime Minister on 8th March, 2018 from Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan. The program through use of technology, a targeted approach and convergence strives to reduce the level of Stunting, Under-nutrition, Anemia and Low Birth Weight in Children, as also, focus on Adolescent Girls, Pregnant Women & Lactating Mothers, thus holistically addressing malnutrition.

POSHAN Abhiyaan aims to ensure service delivery and interventions by use of technology, behavioural change through convergence and lays-down specific targets to be achieved across different monitoring parameters over the next few years. To ensure a holistic approach, all 36 States/UTs and 718 districts will be covered in a phased manner by the year 2020. Never before has nutrition been given such prominence at the highest level in the country.