National Nutrition Mission into become 'Jana Andolan'

The Women and Child Development (WCD) ministry is gearing up to turn its 'National Nutrition Mission' into a 'Jana Andolan' to significantly bring down the percentage of stunting and wasting among children across the country.

To achieve its nutrition targets covering a total of 550 districts by February next year, the ministry has prepared an action plan to involve all stakeholders including local communities to ensure that the benefits of the integrated child development schemes (ICDS) and other welfare programmes reach all the eligible beneficiaries.

It has also formulated an action plan to bring together various Union and state government departments as well as non-government organisations on a common platform under 'Poshan Abhiyan' so that a concerted effort is taken to achieve the identified targets.

With the ministry deciding to use the information communication technology (ICT) tools for real-time monitoring of the implementation of the ICDS programmes under the Poshan Abhiyan, it has organised a day-long national seminar on June 28 here to explore avenues of cooperation and partnerships with States and other stakeholders.

“Convergence and use of technology are the two hallmarks of Poshan Abhiyan. A set of guidelines to initiating the Jana Andolan (people's movement) towards nutrition will be released during the upcoming seminar titled TECH-THON’ for Poshan Abhiyan,” WCD secretary Rakesh Srivastava told reporters here at a press conference on Monday.

The seminar will be attended by “top policymakers” of Union and states governments and representatives from multilateral partner institutions like UNICEF, World Bank, World Health Organisation (WHO), Tata Trust, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and various civil society organisations among others.

WCD Minister Maneka Sanjay Gandhi and Minister of State for WCD Virendra Kumar will be present in the seminar.

The ministry has successfully tested a software, developed for collection of real-time data on the implementation of the ICDS initiatives on a daily basis to monitor the progress and check irregularities, in 57 pilot districts of seven states.

Anganwadi workers and other staffs in these districts were provided with Android-based tablets with the said ICDS-Common Application Software to upload their activities on a daily basis for the senior officials to track the progress and take corrective measures. The pre-loaded software along with the device will be given to Anganwadi workers in rest of the districts.

The National Nutrition Mission seeks to reduce stunting, undernutrition, anaemia (among young children, women and adolescent girls) and reduce low birth weight by 2%, 2%, 3% and 2% per annum respectively.

“Although the target is to reduce stunting by at least 2% per annum, the Mission would strive to achieve a reduction in Stunting from 38.4% (NFHS-4) to 25% by 2022,” WCD secretary said.