New Delhi : As part of Poshan Maah, Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM) under the Ministry of Rural Development has initiated implementation of interventions related to Food, Nutrition, Health, and WASH (FNHW) in selected locations to encourage behaviour change for the adoption of recommended practices amongst the SHG members and their families. Ministry is also partnering with the Ministry of Women & Child Development under POSHAN Abhiyaan.
Under Prime Minister’s Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nourishment (POSHAN) Abhiyaan, every year, the month of September is designated as Rashtriya POSHAN Maah to strengthen the convergence and behaviour change activities to address undernutrition in adolescents, pregnant and lactating mothers, and children.
For this year’s Rashtriya POSHAN Maah, four themes, one for each week has been identified and these are (i) plantation activity as ‘POSHAN Vatika’, (ii) Yoga and AYUSH for nutrition, (iii) distribution of ‘Regional Nutrition Kit’ to Anganwadi beneficiaries of high burdened districts and (iv) identification of SAM children and distribution of nutritious food. Along with these themes, Ministry has also advised the State Rural Livelihoods Missions (SRLMs) to reiterate COVID-19 appropriate behaviours in view of upcoming festival season, promote COVID-19 vaccination of SHG members and their families, promote health-seeking behaviours and immunity building measures, promote diet diversity and traditional foods, including millets, and promotion of Nutrition Gardens with a focus on Moringa tree plantation. An advisory to SRLMs has been issued by MoRD in this regard.
State Rural Livelihoods Missions have been advised to coordinate with Department of Women & Child Development to participate in the planning and coordination meeting, discuss identified issues in the meetings of SHGs and their federations, conduct community based events like competition, recipe demonstrations, traditional food festivals promoting locally available nutritious foods, rallies, POSHAN rangolis, posters, promote nutri-gardens in the households of SHG members with focus on Moringa plantation and awareness generation on the benefits of nutri-gardens, moringa and diet diversity, conduct drive for COVID-19 vaccination for SHG members and their families in convergence with department of health, disseminate key messages using technology platforms e.g. webinars, WhatsApp groups, online discussion platforms etc and participate in events organized by department of Women & Child Development, Department of Health and other departments as per the POSHAN Maah activity calendar.
A video conference with all the SRLMs was conducted on September 4, 2021, under the chairpersonship of Joint Secretary, MoRD, to discuss the plan and preparations for the POSHAN Maah. All SRLMs enthusiastically participated and presented their plans. Action plans have been prepared and guidance provided to district and block levels by the SRLMs. SRLMs were also requested to follow COVID-19 protocols while organizing activities in the field.
Prime Minister interacted with the SHG members last month and advised them to spend 75 hours to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Independence, on awareness generation on social development issues including health, nutrition and WASH. SRLMs have been advised to plan accordingly and support SHG members to take up awareness generation activities during the ongoing Poshan Maah.
State Rural Livelihoods Missions, have initiated the celebration of Poshan Maah and various activities like- Poshan rallies, Poshan pledges, Poshan rangolis, Yoga sessions, sensitization meetings, Nutri-gardens promotion etc.
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