POSHAN Abhiyaan (Prime Minister’s Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nutrition)

About the scheme

• Launch: March 8, 2018, on International Women’s Day, from Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan.
• Nodal Ministry: Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD).
• Nature: A multi-ministerial convergence mission to address malnutrition in a mission-mode.
• It is also known as the National Nutrition Mission (NNM)
• Target Beneficiaries:
  • Children (0-6 years)
  • Adolescent Girls
  • Pregnant Women
  • Lactating Mothers
• Specific Annual Reduction Targets: (To be achieved by 2022 initially)
  • Reduce Stunting (Low height-for-age) by 2% per annum.
  • Reduce Under-nutrition/Underweight (Low weight-for-age) by 2% per annum.
  • Reduce Anemia (among young children, women, and adolescent girls) by 3% per annum.
  • Reduce Low Birth Weight by 2% per annum.
  • Note: The overall goal was to reduce stunting from 38.4% (NFHS-4) to 25% by 2022.

Strategic Pillars and Components

The Abhiyaan’s strategy rests on four key pillars and components:

1. Technology:
   • Poshan Tracker: An ICT-enabled platform for real-time monitoring of nutritional status, service delivery, and tracking of beneficiaries, thereby improving transparency and accountability.
   • ICDS-Common Application Software (ICDS-CAS): Used to digitize the work of Anganwadi Workers (AWWs).
2. Convergence:
   • Ensuring synergy and alignment among various schemes of different Ministries/Departments (e.g., Health, Water & Sanitation, PDS, MGNREGS, etc.) to achieve holistic nutritional outcomes.
3. Jan Andolan (People’s Movement) & Behavioural Change Communication (BCC):
   • Promoting community mobilization and awareness about appropriate nutrition, hygiene, and health practices.
   • Key awareness events include Rashtriya Poshan Maah (observed in September every year) and Poshan Pakhwada.
   • Focus on themes like Antenatal Care, Optimal Breastfeeding (Early and Exclusive), Anaemia, Growth Monitoring, Hygiene, etc.
4. Capacity Building:
   • Training and incentivizing frontline workers (AWWs, ASHA) for better service delivery and use of technology.

Mission POSHAN 2.0

POSHAN Abhiyaan has been restructured and subsumed into Mission Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 (announced in 2021-22) along with Anganwadi Services and Scheme for Adolescent Girls.

• Key Focus Areas of Poshan 2.0:
  • Maternal Nutrition, Infant and Young Child Feeding Norms, and treatment protocols for SAM (Severe Acute Malnutrition) / MAM (Moderate Acute Malnutrition).
  • Wellness through AYUSH practices.
  • Emphasis on Diet Diversity, Food Fortification, and popularizing the use of Millets.
• Infrastructure: Focus on upgrading Anganwadi Centres into Saksham Anganwadis.

Achievements and Progress (as per NFHS-5, 2019-21)

The scheme has shown a positive trend, though challenges persist:

Other Achievements:

• Improved real-time monitoring of service delivery through the Poshan Tracker App.
• High participation in Jan Andolan activities like Poshan Maah, leading to increased community awareness.
• Better Convergence between different health, sanitation, and social welfare schemes.

States’ Demand for Extended PM-POSHAN Scheme

• Several states and Union Territories have proposed extending the PM-POSHAN (midday-meal scheme) to include a breakfast provision in government and government-aided schools.
• Key Proposing States/UTs: Rajasthan, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Sikkim, Lakshadweep, Gujarat, and Delhi.
• Demand for Extension to Higher Classes: 11 other states, including Kerala, Karnataka, Goa, and Meghalaya, have asked for the scheme to be extended to students up to Class XII.

Rationale for Introducing Breakfast

• Educational Benefits: The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 recognizes that “the morning hours after a nutritious breakfast can be particularly productive for the study of cognitively more demanding subjects.”
• Improved Outcomes: A morning meal boosts the continuity of nutrition, which leads to an increase in attendance, attention, and equity in classrooms.
• Simple Logic: Nourished children learn better, making this an investment in education and inclusive growth.
• Precedent/Example: Tamil Nadu’s breakfast programme, launched in 2022, has shown commensurate improvements in attendance and health outcomes, reaching about 24 lakh students.
• Overcoming Past Rejection: The Centre previously turned down a similar proposal by the Education Ministry in 2021-22, but embracing this state-led proposal would signify a welcome alignment with nutritional and educational realities.

Cost and Investment Perspective

• Estimated Cost: The Centre estimates the additional cost of a nationwide breakfast rollout at around Rs 6,000 crore annually.
• Investment vs. Burden: This cost is considered outweighed by the benefits when compared with the downstream burdens of remedial education, healthcare, and lost productivity.
• Framing: The initiative must be recognized as an investment in education, health, and inclusive growth, not merely an add-on.

Implementation Requirements and Fairness

• Core Principle: Welcoming the states’ proposal must be accompanied by a commitment to fairness and feasibility in implementation.
• Logistical Challenges: Effective implementation requires careful attention to:
• Kitchen infrastructure and supply chains.
• Hygiene and adherence to nutritional guidelines (balanced meals).
• Robust monitoring and meaningful community engagement.
• Support for Frontline Workers (Fairness): The Centre must address the strain already felt by those who sustain the midday-meal network.
• Repeated strikes by Anganwadi and ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activists) workers highlight issues of low pay and excessive workloads.
• Adding a breakfast layer without scaling up staff, infrastructure, and funds would simply shift the burden.