Government is implementing the POSHAN Abhiyaan since 18^th December, 2017 to address the problem of malnutrition in the country. The salient features of the  Abhiyaan inter-alia include ensuring convergence with various programmes; incentivizing States/ Union Territories for achieving targeted goals; Information and Communication Technology enabled Integrated Child Development Services-Common Application Software; Evaluation by NITI Aayog, Setting up of National Nutrition Resource  Centre (NNRC) at National level and State Nutrition Resource Centre (SNRC) in each State/Union Territory; Community Mobilization & Behaviour Change & Communication, Awareness Advocacy and Information Education Communication,Jan Andolan by educating people on nutritional aspects, Innovation, Strengthening human resource,  measuring height and weight of children below 6 years of age for early detection of stunting and wasting and  strengthening of Training & Capacity Building.

The results of the POSHAN Abhiyaan can be known after the programme has completed its approved period.  However, in the meantime, as per the report of Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey (CNNS) conducted by UNICEF, prevalence of stunting, wasting and underweight among children is 34.7%, 17% and 33.4% respectively, which is an improvement and reduction from the levels reported in National Family Health Survey-4.

The main purpose of the POSHAN Abhiyaan is to improve the nutritional status of children and reduce the level of under-nutrition. For this purpose, ICDS-CAS (ICDS-Common Application Software) enables growth monitoring of children with the help of auto plotting of growth chart on the mobile application. Children (0-5 years) are weighed and their height measured at the Anganwadis across the country and their data are entered in the ICDS-CAS application. Thus, it enables monitoring of nutritional status of children across the country on monthly basis. SMS alerts are sent to the concerned authorities for taking remedial action. Severely Acute Malnourished children with medical complications are referred to Nutrition Rehabilitation Centres by the health functionaries.

State-wise details of fund released under POSHAN Abhiyaan during 2017-18, 2018-19 and the current year is given below:

This information was given by the Minister of Women and Child Development, SmritiZubinIrani, in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today.

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MM/ SB