Need to give priority to national nutrition mission: NITI Aayog vice-chairman Rajiv Kumar

Emphasising on need to give priority to 'poshan abhiyan', also called national nutrition mission, NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Rajiv Kumar on Wednesday said convergence across various sectors can achieve goal of making India free of malnutrition.

He said it was possible to reach out to 25 crore people last month due to convergence of various ministries which connected with beneficiaries at grassroot level.

"Poshan Abhiyan should be given a priority more than anything. In my opinion, goal can be achieved without giving it a priority. Providing nutrition to everyone is biggest challenge because thing else matters if a child is malurished," he told PTI on sidelines of an event organised to celebrate culmination of Poshan Maah (National Nutrition Month).

government has decided to observe every September as National Nutrition Month to mark country's fight against malnutrition. 

"A convergence across various sectors can achieve goal of making India malnutrition-free," he said.

dressing garing, Kumar said biggest achievement of Poshan Abhiyan was being able to make it into a 'Jan Andolan' (people's movement). 

"We have been talking about it for past 70 years. We have t be able to achieve our aims because we were t treating it a convergent programme. It helped in convergence of various ministries which connected to grassroot level. second achievement is that we presented an example through public-private partnership. third achievement is increase of awareness," he said. 

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Over 500 awards were presented to various ministries, NGOs and anganwi workers for ir contribution during national nutrition month.

Mhya Presh was awarded for recording highest number of activities under Poshan Abhiyan at 7.7 lakh during month, followed by Andhra Presh, Tamil Nu and Gujarat.

Among Union Territories, Chandigarh's performance was judged best with 15,351 activities, followed by Andaman and Nicobar Islands at 429 activities.

Citing Mhya Presh's achievement, Kumar said or states should follow its le as it performed over three times better than state which was ranked second.

'Poshan Abhiyan' aims to bring down stunting of children in group of 0-6 years from 38.4 per cent to 25 per cent by 2022.

eight mes of National Nutrition Mission are antenatal, optimal breast-feeding, complementary feeding, anaemia, growth monitoring, hygiene and sanitation, food fortification and girl's education, diet and marri at right .

A senior Women and Child Development Ministry official said next year on March 8, first anniversary of Poshan Abhiyan would be celebrated and monetary rewards would be given to people for ir contribution towards mission. 

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