Beat Malnutrition !

Malnutrition is a rampant problem in India, especially for children in the age group of 0-6 years. This causes a variety of issues like stunting, anaemia and low birth weight, among others.

The Poshan Abhiyaan Program, of the Ministry of Women and Child Development, began in 2018 to tackle malnutrition, particularly stunting, among children in the age group of 0-6 years of age. The goal was to reduce it from 38.4% in 2018 to 25% by 2022.

The program has various plans, schemes and systems in place, one of which are the ‘Swasth Bharat Preraks’, deployed by Tata Trusts, in collaboration with local district administrations.

The Preraks not only help fast-track the roll-out of the government’s various interventions, but they also track on-ground issues that plague such social programmes, and to provide workable solutions based on their experience.
Similarly, a state-level Prerak will not only monitor the District Leads but will also provide high-level inputs at the state-level to come up with a state-level action plan and various other elements of the Poshan Abhiyaan.

Basically, it maps various schemes that fight against malnutrition while also introducing a robust convergence mechanism to help them work in tandem.

All of these also involve the masses directly, through ‘Jan Andolans’, increasing their participation in nutrition-related activities. But that also our biggest challenge, as it is hugely time-consuming to get communities to understand and accept the benefits of fortification.

Reference: The Better India