DIMAPUR: Nagaland department of Social Welfare is all set to launch Poshan Pakhwada fortnight beginning from March 20 till April 3 basing on three key themes namely to promote and popularise Shree Anna/ millet for nutritional wellbeing, celebrate Swastha Balak Spradha, and popularise Saksham Anganwadis.
Poshan Abhiyaan endeavours to improve outcomes in pregnant women, lactating mothers, adolescent girls and children under the age of 6 years in a holistic manner. In pursuance of this objective, Poshan Pakhwada is celebrated in convergence with all stakeholders during the month of March-April.
[bsa_pro_ad_space id=1]Since the launch of the Abhiyaan, 4 Poshan Pakhwadas have been held successfully across the country, with fervent participation from states/ UTs as well as convergent Ministries and departments. In the last Poshan Pakhwada 2022, close to 3 crore activities were witnessed across key themes.
The United Nations General Assembly has adopted a resolution declaring 2023 as the International Year of Millets, as proposed by India to the Food and Agriculture Organisation. Since the primary goal of this initiative was to raise public awareness of health benefits of millets and suitability of cultivation of millets in harsh climatic conditions, Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) has taken up various steps to popularise adoption of Shree Anna or Millets.
An update from the assistant director of Social Welfare department and joint project coordinator, Sorenthung Kikon, stated that the Poshan Pakhwada in March-April 2023 was considered an appropriate platform to reach out to and sensitise communities on the nutritional benefits of millets.
To this end, he stated an action Plan for celebration of Poshan Pakhwada 2023 under the guidelines of MoWCD has been prepared has been prepared by state project management unit.
The key activities under theme 1 on millet for nutritional well-being included demonstration of millet recipes, cooking competition, awareness on good health through millet intake, community based events on importance of millet in the nutritional profile of pregnant women, adolescent girls and children.
He informed that Anganwadi workers, ASHA, SHG, husbands and mothers etc. would participate actively in those activities.
On theme 2 under ‘Celebration of Swasth Balak Spardha,’ he stated that activities would include home visits for nutritional education and growth monitoring, healthy baby shows incentiving winning child, ranking of healthy children and growth monitoring, and screening of pregnant women, lactating mothers and adolescent girls in anemia camp.
Sassham Anganwadis under theme 3 would include activities such as WASH/ cleanliness drives at Anganwadi Centers and seminars on importance of hand washing.
Celebration of Poshan Pakhwada 2023 would be concluded on April 3. The closing day would be observed by awarding the best performing grassroots worker in the presence of local bodies.
Kikon has further requested all convergent departments and the people of the state to implement and participate in all the action plans across all districts and blocks.