National Nutrition Mission: Objectives, Features and Eligibility Criteria

As per the data of NFHS-4, a quarter of the women of reproductive age suffer from a lack of nutrition. Over 33 lakhs of children are malnourished, and over half of them are severely malnourished in India. To tackle this malnutrition in children and pregnant women, the Indian Government launched its flagship programme, National Nutrition Mission or Poshan Abhiyan, in 2018. If you want to know more about this scheme, keep scrolling.

National Nutrition Mission or Poshan Abhiyaan aims to improve the nutritional health of children, adolescents, lactating mothers and pregnant women. Besides this, take a look at the following objectives of the National Nutrition Mission that this scheme aims to fulfil:

• Prevention and reduction of stunted growth and under-nourishment among children between 0 to 6 years by 2% per year.
• Reduction of anaemia among children aged between 6 - 59 months and women and adolescent females aged between 15 - 49 years by 3%.
• Reduction of low birth weight of a baby by 2%.

Here are some of the following features of National Nutrition Mission:

• The Indian Government launched this programme on International Women's Day, 8th March 2018, at Rajasthan to eliminate malnutrition by 2022. The mission will form an apex body to check, supervise and provide nutrition-related guidance across Indian ministries.
• It also aims to promote awareness about malnutrition and provide viable solutions accordingly. The country celebrates Rashtriya Poshan Maah in September every year to create awareness about the role of nutrition required for the proper functioning of a human's body.
• Multiple ministries of the Indian Government have taken the initiative for this scheme to increase its outreach and further streamline its implementation.
• NITI Aayog submits reports of implementation status every six months. Technical Support Unit at NITI Aayog executes this. This body will also extend technical, research and policy support required for this programme.
• It also maps several other schemes such as Janani Suraksha Yojana, Matru Vandana Yojana, National Health Mission, etc. The programme allows collaboration of these schemes through an Information and Communication Technology-based real-time monitoring system. This further optimises the functioning of each scheme and Anganwadi centres to meet specific targets.
• The mission incentivises states and Union Territories to meet specific targets. It also incentivises Anganwadi workers to use Information Technology tools and eliminate previously-used registers.
• This mission performs social audits and establishes Nutrition Resource Centres involving Jan Andolan to promote people's participation in nutrition-related activities.
• It has introduced height measurement of children in the Anganwadi centres.
• It involves gradual scaling of financial interventions by the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Systems supported by the World Bank.

The beneficiaries of the National Nutrition Mission are –

• Children (between the age group of 0 to 6 years)
• Pregnant women
• Lactating mothers

To avail of the benefits of this mission, individuals need to own Aadhaar cards.

Thus the National Nutrition Mission will help to eradicate malnutrition in India through a comprehensive approach. The Indian Government has further announced Poshan 2.0, which aims to improve malnutrition conditions in India which may have deteriorated due to the ongoing global healthcare crisis.