India News | Govt Has Given High Priority to Malnutrition Issue: Irani
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. The government has accorded high priority to the issue of malnutrition and is implementing several schemes across the country to improve nutritional outcomes in children, Union Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani said on Friday.
New Delhi, Feb 4 (PTI) The government has accorded high priority to the issue of malnutrition and is implementing several schemes across the country to improve nutritional outcomes in children, Union Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani said on Friday.
Irani said in Lok Sabha that the Anganwadi services scheme is implemented through 7,075 projects and 13,89,110 operational Anganwadi centres, as on June 30, 2021, across the country covering 9.06 crore beneficiaries.
She said in order to improve nutritional outcomes in children to address the issue of malnutrition across the country, the government is taking a number of measures.
The government has accorded high priority to the issue of malnutrition and is implementing several schemes like Anganwadi services, scheme for adolescent girls and Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY) under the Umbrella Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme as direct targeted interventions, she said during Question Hour.
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The minister said supplementary nutrition is provided under the Anganwadi Services Scheme in the form of hot cooked meal, morning snack and take home ration.
The POSHAN Abhiyaan launched on March 8, 2018 aims to reduce malnutrition in the country in a phased manner, through a synergised and result oriented approach, she said.
Irani said the government has taken measures to strengthen nutritional content, delivery, outreach and outcomes with focus on developing practices that nurture health, wellness and immunity to disease and malnutrition under Poshan 2.0 announced in budget 2021-22.
Steps have also been taken to improve nutritional quality and testing, strengthen delivery and leverage technology under the Poshan Tracker, a robust ICT platform to improve governance, she said.
The minister said the government has advised states and union territories to ensure that the quality of supplementary nutrition conforms to the prescribed standards laid down under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 and regulations made thereunder.
She said the states and union territories have also been advised to promote use of AYUSH systems for prevention of malnutrition and related diseases.
A programme to support development of Poshan Vatikas at Anganwadi Centres to meet dietary diversity gap leveraging traditional knowledge in nutritional practices has also been taken up, she said.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)