More than 90 crore Jan Andolan activities conducted across the country under POSHAN 2.0

Poshan 2.0 is an integrated nutrition support programme, to strengthen nutritional content, delivery, outreach and outcomes with focus on developing practices that nurture health, wellness and immunity to disease and malnutrition. It focuses on Maternal Nutrition, Infant and Young Child Feeding Norms, Treatment of MAM/SAM and Wellness through AYUSH practices to reduce wasting and under-weight prevalence besides stunting and anaemia.

This Ministry has taken several measures for empowering Anganwadi Centres (AWCs) in all the States/UTs which inter-alia include

i. Component related to strengthening, up gradation and rejuvenation across the country for improved nutrition delivery and for early childhood careand development under Saksham Anganwadi

ii. The unit cost approved for construction of toilet has been raised from Rs.12,000/- to Rs. 36000/- per AWC and for drinking water provisioning the approved cost has been raised from Rs.10,000/- to Rs. 17000/- per AWC to be shared by Centre and States/UTs as per cost sharing ratio

iii. Directions have been issued to States/UTs to co-locate Anganwadi Centres which are running on rent without sufficient infrastructure, at the nearby Primary Schools

iv. The cost norms for construction of Anganwadi Centres in convergence with MGNREGS have been revised from @7 lakh per AWC to @12 Lakh per AWC

v. Replacement policy for mobile phones and GMDs at AWCs has been issued for improved monitoring and data inputs.

vi. Under the revised Scheme, there is a provision of upgradation of 2 lakh Anganwadi Centres (AWCs) as Saksham Anganwadis.

vii. Keeping in view the importance of nutrition and Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) services delivery, it has been decided to upgrade all Mini-Anganwadi Centres to main/regular Anganwadi Centres with the availability of an Anganwadi Helper.

viii. Jan Andolan is carried out through the annual Rashtriya Poshan Maah celebrated in the month of September and Poshan Pakhwada celebrated in March at scale across India. Till date, more than 90 crore Jan Andolan activities have been conducted across the country.

ix. First ever National protocol for Community Management of Malnutrition in children was launched jointly by the Ministry of Women and Child Development and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare dated 10th October 2023.

x. The Anganwadi Protocol for Divyang Children was launched on 28th November, 2023 to realize the commitment for strengthening Divyang children’s overall access to improved well-being.

The Budget allocated to Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 in FY 2022-23 was Rs. 20,263.07 Crores and in current FY (2023-24) it is Rs.20,554.31 Crores.

This information was given by the Minister of Women and Child Development, Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani, in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.