WEB DESK
NITI Aayog Vice Chairman and Chairman of the National Nutrition Mission Dr Rajiv Kumar has said, during the ongoing Poshan Maah, the government is giving special attention to those 250 Districts of the country where the malnutrition level is higher than the national average. The entire September month is being celebrated as the Rashtriya Poshan Maah across the country to address the malnutritional challenges.
talking to ALL INDIA RADIO, Dr Kumar said, the focus of the government will be towards improving the status of malnutrition in such districts so that they can be brought at the national average.
To a question on rate of reduction in malnutrition, Dr Rajiv Kumar said, as per the UNICEF data, in the last four years, the child malnutrition rate has declined from 38 per cent to 34 per cent. He said, in case of anaemic mothers, the rate of prevalence of anaemia has reduced from 50 per cent to about 48 per cent in the last four years.
Dr Rajiv Kumar has also appealed to all the States to give special attention in fight against malnutrition during the Poshan Maah and make it a mass movement.
Prime Minister’s Overreaching Scheme for Holistic Nourishment – POSHAN Abhiyaan is a multi- ministerial convergence mission with the vision to address malnutrition with a targeted approach by 2022.
Poshan Maah aims at making people aware of the importance of nutrition and giving individual access to government services to support supplement nutrition for their children and pregnant women and lactating mothers. This year Poshan Maah focuses on five critical components – ‘First 1000 days of the Child, Anaemia, Diarrhoea, Hand Wash and Sanitation and Poshtik