The National Nutrition Mission aims to bring down stunting of children in the age bracket of 0-6 years from 38.4% in 2018 to 25% by 2022.
New Delhi: In keeping with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to convert the National Nutrition Mission into a ‘jan aandolan’ or a people’s movement, the NDA government has decided to observe the month of September as National Nutrition Month.
The National Nutrition Mission, which aims to bring down stunting of children in the age bracket of 0-6 years from 38.4 per cent as of March 2018 to 25 per cent by 2022, is an overarching scheme for holistic nourishment launched by Modi on 8 March in poll-bound Rajasthan’s Jhunjhunu district. It also aims to reduce the levels of under-nutrition, anaemia and low birth weight babies.
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The decision to observe September as the ‘Rashtriya Poshan Maah’ (National Nutrition Month) was made during the second meeting of the National Council on India’s Nutrition Challenges held last month under the chairmanship of NITI Aayog vice-chairman Rajiv Kumar. Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi attended the meeting.
Subsequently, in a meeting chaired by the secretary of the WCD Ministry, Rakesh Srivastava, earlier this month, it was decided that the related activities will be carried out by all the States/Union Territories across the country by involving field functionaries from relevant departments and ministries. These include departments of women and child welfare, health, drinking water and sanitation, rural development, panchayati raj, education and food.
At the meeting of the nutrition council, Gandhi emphasised that states need to prioritise regular monitoring with efficient distribution of supplementary nutrition.
“India can’t afford to have generations of stunted children. States should prioritise identification of beneficiaries, regular monitoring and efficient distribution of supplementary nutrition,” Gandhi said at the meeting.
The NNM, a scheme meant for children, pregnant women, as well as lactating mothers, is one of the biggest schemes under the WCD Ministry.
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The total budget allocated for the scheme is Rs 9,046.17 crore with the central government’s share of Rs 2,849.54 crore. In a recent statement, the government stated that it aims to cover all districts under the scheme across the country by 2019-20.
Extremely appreciable initiative .. we must do more and more educational as well as healthy food promotion programs …. thanks
Awareness program related to Nutrition…food safety .food security..food sanitation… issues and concern for undernutrition.. over Nutrition..Anemia .. Geriatric nutrition.Need based education during low birthweight…pregnancy lactations., conservation of Traditional food practices should be the major area of concern.we will celebrate the Nutrition month by including the above areas
Hunger first, followed by nutrition……both need to be addressed based on needs..
Every year September would be celebrated as the National Nutrition Month to mark the country’s fight against malnutrition, the Ministry of Women and Child Development has said.
The ministry would, in the month, organise programmes to spread awareness on the issues related to malnutrition like stunting, under-nutrition, anemia and low birth weight in children and focus on adolescent girls, pregnant women and lactating mothers, according to an official statement.