National Nutrition Mission week from Sept 1

SRINAGAR, AUGUST 30: Social Welfare Department is organizing National Nutrition Mission week from 01 September 2018 across the J&K State by organizing various Programme at State / District / Block / Village Level on the importance of Nutrition for Better Health).

Primarily National Nutrition Mission, now renamed as POSHAN Abhiyaan has been launched in a phased manner commencing from 2017-18. POSHAN Abhiyaan was formally launched by Honorable Prime Minister of India on 8^th of March, 2018 at Jhunjhunu Rajasthan. Initially, 315 districts all over India have been covered under the Scheme on a pilot basis. The scheme aims to cover all the districts of the country by the end of year 2020.

The Mission aims to reduce malnourishment from the country in a phased manner through the life cycle concept by adopting a synergized and result oriented approach. The goals of POSHAN Abhiyaan are to achieve improvement in the nutritional status of children from 0-6 years, pregnant and lactating mothers in a time-bound manner during the next three years beginning from 2017-18.

The POSHAN Abhiyaan is to ensure convergence of all nutrition-related schemes of the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) on the target population. POSHAN Abhiyaan will ensure convergence of various programmes i.e. Anganwadi Services, Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY), Scheme for Adolescent Girls of MWCD; Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY), National Health Mission (NHM) of MoH&FW; Swachh Bharat Mission of Ministry of Drinking Water & Sanitation (DW&S); Public Distribution System (PDS) of Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution (CAF&PD); Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) of Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD); Ministry of Panchayati Raj and Urban Local Bodies through the Ministry of Urban Development.

In J&K, initially three blocks have been covered under the scheme viz; Gool of District Ramban, Mahore & Arnas of District Reasi. The scheme is implemented through 742 AWCs in these three blocks.

In Phase-II, the scheme will be implemented in eight (08) more districts of the state viz; Budgam, Baramulla, Kargil, Kupwara, Rajouri, Doda, Kathua, Ramban (Remaining projects/blocks).