The Poshan Abhiyaan

• 12 Mar 2025

Why in News?  

On 8th March 2025, Poshan Abhiyaan marked seven years of implementation, during which significant efforts were undertaken to enhance nutrition levels and eradicate malnutrition across the country. 

Key Points 

•  About POSHAN Abhiyaan: 
  • Poshan Abhiyaan (National Nutrition Mission) was launched on 8th March, 2018 on the occasion of International Women's Day from Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan.  
  • It focuses on meeting the nutritional needs of adolescents, pregnant women, lactating mothers and children (0-6 years) through a targeted and integrated approach . 
• Objective:  
  • It aims to reduce stunting, under-nutrition, anemia (in young children, women and adolescent girls) and the incidence of low birth weight babies . 
• Strategic Pillars:  
  • Its implementation is based on four strategic pillars : 
    • Quality Services: Strengthening health services through Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) , National Health Mission (NHM) and Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY) with a focus on the first 1,000 days of the child. 
    • Coordination between sectors: Coordinating efforts across ministries such as water and sanitation for holistic nutrition. 
      • The National Council on India's Nutrition Challenges, under the guidance of NITI Aayog , guides policy and reviews nutrition convergence quarterly. 
    • Technology: Use of Nutrition Tracker for real-time data and monitoring and use of ICDS-Common Application Software for strengthening the delivery of Anganwadi services. 
    • Jan Andolan: Promoting community-driven nutrition awareness and behaviour change. 
• Major achievements:
  • According to the Nutrition Tracker data of December 2023 , about 7.44 crore children below the age of six were assessed, of which 36% were stunted, 17% were underweight and 6% of children below 5 years were wasted. 
  • According to the recent report of National Family Health Survey-5 (NFHS-5) 2019-21 , there has been an improvement in the nutritional indicators of children under five years of age as compared to NFHS-4 (2015-16): 
    • Stunting decreased from 38.4% to 35.5% . 
    • Malnutrition decreased from 21.0% to 19.3% . 
    • The prevalence of underweight decreased from 35.8% to 32.1% . 

 National Health Mission (NHM) 

• NHM was launched by the government of India in 2013 subsuming the National Rural Health Mission (Launched in 2005) and the National Urban Health Mission (Launched in 2013). 
• The main programmatic components include Health System Strengthening in rural and urban areas for - Reproductive-Maternal- Neonatal-Child and Adolescent Health (RMNCH+A), and Communicable and Non-Communicable Diseases. 
• The NHM envisages achievement of universal access to equitable, affordable & quality health care services that are accountable and responsive to people's needs.
  

Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY) 

• PMMVY is a maternity benefit programme being implemented in all districts of the country with effect from 1st January, 2017. 
• It is a centrally sponsored scheme being executed by the Ministry of Women and Child Development. 
• Direct Benefit Transfer Scheme: 
  • Cash benefits are provided to pregnant women in their bank account directly to meet enhanced nutritional needs and partially compensate for wage loss.