Women, Child Development Ministry takes steps to improve nutrition outcomes, strengthen Anganwadi services
New Delhi, August 7
Under the Mission Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0, the 'Poshan Tracker' digital application has been rolled out by the Ministry of Women and Child Development as an ICT-based governance tool for continuous monitoring and tracking of all services being provided to the beneficiaries registered at Anganwadi Centres.
According to the press release by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Technology under Poshan Tracker is being leveraged for dynamic identification of stunting, wasting, under-weight prevalence among children under 5 years of age group. The State-wise and year-wise information on nutrition indicators among children under 5 years is available at Poshan Tracker dashboard.
Various measures have been taken by the MoWCD to improve nutritional outcomes and strengthen Anganwadi services:
Under Mission Poshan 2.0, two lakh Anganwadi Centres (AWCs) located in Government buildings have been approved to be upgraded as Saksham Anganwadis for delivery of improved nutrition and for ECCE activities.
These Saksham Anganwadis are equipped with better infrastructure such as LED screens, water filtration system, Poshan Vatika, Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) material and Building as Learning Aid (BaLA) paintings.
Supplementary Nutrition in the form of Hot cooked meal (HCM) and Take-Home Ration (THR) is provided to Children (6 months to 6 years), Pregnant Women, Lactating Mothers and Adolescent Girls in accordance with the nutrition norms contained in Schedule-II of the National Food Security Act, 2013. Additional Nutrition is also provided to Severely Acute Malnourished (SAM) children in form of Take-Home Ration (THR), the release said.
MoWCD and Ministry of Health & Family Welfare have jointly released the Protocol for Management of Malnutrition in Children to prevent and treat severely acute malnutrition in children and for reducing associated morbidity and mortality.
Mission Poshan 2.0 empowers the frontline functionaries by providing them with smartphones along with data recharge facility. Further, there is a provision of Growth Monitoring Devices (GMDs) as Infantometer, Stadiometer, Weighing Scale-Infant and Weighing Scale-Mother & Child at each Anganwadi Centre (AWC) for the regular growth monitoring of registered beneficiaries.
Anganwadi Workers (AWWs) conduct structured home visits to support pregnant women, lactating mothers, and young children (0-3 years) through nutrition counselling, caregiving guidance, and promotion of early childhood development.
One of the major activities undertaken is Community Mobilization and Awareness Advocacy in the form of Jan Andolans (Poshan Maah and Poshan Pakhwada celebrated in the months of September and March-April respectively) to educate people on nutritional aspects as adoption of good nutrition habit requires sustained efforts for behavioural change.
Poshan Vatikas are set up under Mission Poshan 2.0 at Anganwadi Centers across the country to encourage consumption of local and seasonal fruits, vegetables, thereby improving diet-diversity and increase the intake of micronutrients.
This information was given by the Minister of State for Women and Child Development, Savitri Thakur in the Lok Sabha in reply to a question.
— ANI
Reader Comments
Good initiative, but the real challenge is implementation in rural areas. I've seen many Anganwadi centers in UP lacking basic infrastructure despite these schemes. The government should ensure that the funds actually reach the ground level and not just remain on paper.
The Poshan Vatika concept is brilliant! Growing local vegetables at Anganwadi centers not only provides fresh nutrition but also teaches children about farming. My daughter loves visiting her Anganwadi and seeing the vegetables grow! 🌱
As someone working with NGOs in India, I appreciate the government's focus on digital tracking through Poshan Tracker. However, it would be helpful to see more public access to the data and regular third-party audits to ensure transparency in the system.
Good to see the government focusing on early childhood development! The home visits by Anganwadi workers have been particularly helpful for new mothers like me. We got proper guidance on breastfeeding and nutrition for our little ones. 👶
Nice initiative, but the real question is - why did it take so long? Malnutrition has been a persistent problem for decades. We need more focus on behavioral change at the community level. Gadgets alone won't solve the problem; we need more trained Anganwadi workers and better salaries for them.
D Deepika L < We welcome thoughtful discussions from our readers. Please keep comments respectful and on-topic.