Recently, the Ministry of Woman and Child Development issued some guidelines regarding implementing “Saksham Anganwadi and poshan 2.0”. Therefore, the Government of India (GOI) has already approved the scheme, which will be implemented from 2020-22 to 2025-26 for the 15th financial period.
The scheme was launched to remove the challenges people face related to malnutrition. Examples include malnutrition in children, adolescent girls, pregnant women, and lactating mothers. These scheme guidelines have been developed to support stakeholders involved in implementing the scheme. These guidelines are being issued under the National Food Security Act 2013.
Guidelines regarding Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0
The existing scheme components have been re-organised under poshan 2.0. The targeted beneficiaries have been revised to include adolescent girls aged 14 to 18 years instead of 11 to 14 years. Healthy programmes under Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 have been included.
Under the amendment, there are provisions for hot cooked meals, take-home rations, periodicity of distribution of take-home rations, development of community food habits, procurement of supplementary nutrition, and quality testing of the food.
The existing scheme components have been re-organised into the following primary verticals:
- Anganwadi infrastructure includes modern, upgraded Saksham Anganwadi.
- Poshan Abhiyan and Nutrition support for poshan through supplementary nutrition program (SNP) for:
- Children of the age group of 6 months to 6 years.
- Pregnant women and lactating mothers (PWLM)
- Adolescent girls in the age group of 14 to 18 years.
- Early childhood care and education for 3 to 6 years.
Significantly, Poshan Abhiyan will be the pillar for outreach and will cover innovations related to nutritional support.
Objectives
1. To remove the challenges of malnutrition
2. To promote awareness regarding nutrition and eating habits for sustainable health and well-being can be implemented
3. To address the deficiency related to nutrition
4. To contribute to the human capital development of the country
To implement the scheme successfully, several committees have been established. The Empowered Programme Committee (EPC) is the highest technical body for planning, supervising, and monitoring the effective implementation of the Anganwadi services scheme.
Poshan Tracker
A robust ICT-enabled platform, “Poshan tracker”, has been designed to capture real-time data on implementing Anganwadi services across the country. Information technology systems are also being leveraged to strengthen and increase transparency in the delivery of nutrition support systems. The Ministry of Women and Child Development (MoWCD) launched a poshan tracker on March 1, 2021, through a national e-governance division.
Technology under the poshan tracker will be used to identify stunting, wasting, and underweight prevalence among children and women. The portion tracker will enable real-time tracking of delivered food and grains. Along with this, the poshan tracker will help mission poshan 2.0 generate data, provide feedback to programme managers, and document the scheme’s impact on nutrition indicators.
Funding for the program
The government has rolled out this programme to reduce malnutrition among children and women. It will be sponsored by the central government and implemented through the state government and the union territories administration. The central and state governments shall release the funds’ ratio between the states and union territories.
