Context: The government’s three top committees on nutrition responsible for providing policy directions, monitoring the implementation of various schemes and reviewing the nutritional status of various States and Union Territories have failed to meet even once since the COVID-19 pandemic, while they are required to meet every quarter, despite global warnings of rising levels of hunger, malnutrition and child mortality.

The three top committees are:

• Vice-Chairman of NITI Aayog headed National Nutrition Council (NNC), which also includes 12 Union Ministers and five Chief Ministers on a rotational basis;
• the Executive Committee (EC) of the National Nutrition Mission headed by Secretary of the Ministry of Women and Child Development; and
• The National Technical Board on Nutrition (NTBN), headed by Member, NITI Aayog.

These committees were set up after the Cabinet approved the National Nutrition Mission in December 2017 and were mandated to meet once every quarter.

They have to supervise the policy framework and the implementation of the government programmes, review the performance of various States, give scientific and technical recommendations for the execution of various schemes and propose corrective measures.

UNICEF warning

• The UNICEF warned in July last that 6.7 million additional children under five could suffer from wasting and there could be nearly 10,000 more under-five deaths a month globally as a result of the socio-economic impact of the pandemic.
• The recent National Family Health Survey-5 data shows that even before COVID-19, 16 out of 22 States surveyed had witnessed worsening levels of wasting among under five children and 13 showed a surge in stunting among children.
• The Hunger Watch Survey conducted by the Right to Food Campaign also shows that even five months after the lockdown was lifted, people continued to go to bed on an empty stomach, and more than 60% of the 4,000 respondents across 11 States said their consumption of pulses and vegetables had gone down.

POSHAN Abhiyaan

• It is a multi-ministerial convergence mission with the vision to ensure attainment of malnutrition free India by 2022.
• The objective of POSHAN Abhiyaan to reduce stunting in identified Districts of India with the highest malnutrition burden by improving utilization of key Anganwadi Services and improving the quality of Anganwadi Services delivery.
• Its aim to ensure holistic development and adequate nutrition for pregnant women, mothers and children.
• POSHAN Abhiyaan through robust convergence mechanism and other components would strive to create the synergy.

Features

• The POSHAN Abhiyaan, as an apex body, will monitor, supervise, fix targets and guide the nutrition related interventions across the Ministries.

The proposal consists of

• mapping of various Schemes contributing towards addressing malnutrition
• introducing a very robust convergence mechanism
• ICT based Real Time Monitoring system
• incentivizing States/UTs for meeting the targets
• incentivizing Anganwadi Workers (AWWs) for using IT based tools
• eliminating registers used by AWWs
• introducing measurement of height of children at the Anganwadi Centres (AWCs)
• Social Audits
• Setting-up Nutrition Resource Centres, involving masses through Jan Andolan for their participation on nutrition through various activities, among others.

Key nutrition strategies and interventions

• These are key Nutrition strategies and interventions IYCF (Infant and Young child feeding), Food and Nutrition, Immunization, Institutional Delivery, WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene), De-worming, ORS-Zinc, Food Fortification, Dietary Diversification, Adolescent Nutrition, Maternal Health and Nutrition, ECD (Early childhood development)/ECCE (Early Childhood care and Education), Convergence, ICT-RTM (Information and Communication.
• Technology enabled Real Time Monitoring) and Capacity Building etc.

Implementation Strategy and TargetsImplementation

• Implementation strategy would be based on intense monitoring and Convergence Action Plan right up to the grass root level.
• POSHAN Abhiyaan will be rolled out in three phases from 2017-18 to 2019-20. POSHAN Abhiyaan targets to reduce stunting, under-nutrition, anaemia (among young children, women and adolescent girls) and reduce low birth weight by 2%, 2%, 3% and 2% per annum
• Although the target to reduce Stunting is at least 2% p.a., Mission would strive to achieve reduction in Stunting from 38.4% (NFHS-4) to 25% by 2022 (Mission 25 by 2022).

PILLARS OF THE MISSION

• ICDS-CAS(Common Application Software)
• Convergence
• Behavioural change, IEC Advocacy
• Training and Capacity building
• Innovations
• Incentives
• Grievance Redressal

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/three-top-panels-on-nutrition-but-zero-meetings-in-pandemic-year/article33521745.ece?homepage=tr

Download PDF