POSHAN Vatika
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About
- According to the Union Women and Child Development Ministry’s estimated that there are nearly 1.8 million severely acute malnourished children in India.
- Tribal Children suffer the most compared to any other socio-economically disadvantaged group. Around 40 % of the 5 million undernourished tribal children have stunted growth, underweight and have severe undernourishment.
- Malnourished children do not attain their optimum potential in terms of growth, learning, performance in school and physical development to work later in life.
- The Prime Minister’s Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nourishment (POSHAN Abhiyaan) to improve nutritional outcomes for children, pregnant women and lactating mothers.
- The focus is on holistically addressing the multiple determinants of malnutrition through intervention and services targeted in the first 1,000 days of a child’s life. POSHAN Abhiyaan aims to achieve these goals through the convergence of multiple programmes and schemes.
Poshan Abhiyaan
- POSHAN (Prime Minister’s Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nutrition) Abhiyaan was launched by the Prime Minister of India in 2018 to improve nutritional outcomes for children under 6 years of age, pregnant women and lactating mothers.
- Recently Mission Poshan 2.0 (Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0) has been launched as an integrated nutrition support program to strengthen nutritional content, delivery and outcomes with a principle of expanding practices that facilitate health, wellness and immunity and malnutrition.
- The name of the Midday Meal Scheme was changed to PM-POSHAN (Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman) Scheme, in September 2021, by the Ministry of Education.
- The Central Government also announced that an additional 24 lakh students receiving pre-primary education at government & government-aided schools would also be included under the scheme by 2022.
- The Midday Meal Scheme is a school meal programme in India designed to better the nutritional standing of school-age children nationwide, the Ministry of Education.
- The programme supplies free lunches on working days for children in primary and upper primary classes in government, government-aided, local body, Education Guarantee Scheme, and alternate innovative education centres, Madarsa and Maqtabs supported under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, and National Child Labour Project schools run by the ministry of labour.
- Serving 120 million children in over 1.27 million schools and Education Guarantee Scheme centres, the Midday Meal Scheme is the largest of its kind in the world.
Poshan Vatikas
- The Union Ministry of Women and Child Development with the Union Ministry of Ayush have set up Poshan Vatikas in nearly 4.37 lakh Anganwadi Centres.
- More than 1.10 lakh medicinal saplings have been planted in the selected districts of 6 States.
- Under Poshan Maah 2022, Nutri-gardens or Poshan Vatikas are set up with poultry/fishery units across the country.
- Poshan Vatikas or Nutri-gardens provide easy and affordable access to fruits, vegetables, medicinal plants and herbs. It ensures a regular supply of fresh fruits, vegetables and medicinal plants to women and children.
- It can play an important role in improving dietary variety by supplying key micronutrients through local fruits and vegetables.
- The Union Ministry of Women and Child Development with the Union Ministry of Ayush have set up Poshan Vatikas in nearly 4.37 lakh Anganwadi Centres.
- More than 1.10 lakh medicinal saplings have been planted in the selected districts of 6 States.
- Nutri gardens or Poshan Vatikas are set up with poultry/fishery units across the country.
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