Poshan Abhiyan in 31 districts from Today: Tummala

Roads & Buildings, Women & Child Development Minister Tummala Nageshwar Rao today said a 15-day program will be taken up in 31 districts to create awareness among people on health and nutritious food for women and children under Poshan Abhiyan Scheme of the Centre.

The minister conducted a review meeting on the Central-sponsored scheme titled “Poshan Abhiyan” at the Secretariat here with officials concerned. The program, he said, was for people participation to see that the women and children remained healthy. He said the program will be conducted through village level meetings from April 14 to 24 in all the districts.

The aim of the program was to ensure that the women and children get nutritious food and avoid the problem of poor physical growth in children. A plan of action will be implemented as per the Central scheme and awareness programs will prove handy, he said. Nageshwar Rao said to achieve the goals in three years, a coordination meeting of Panchayat Raj, Health and Sanitary departments will be held to chalk out a plan on April 24.

The scheme was launched on March 8 this year in districts of Adilabad, Asifabad, Mancherial, Nirmal, Mahabubnagar, Gadwal, Wanaparty, Nagarkurnool, Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy. A total of 48 projects are taken up and 10960 Anganwadi centers are involved in the scheme he said. National Poshan Mission will be an apex body will give some targets to the state for achieving health goals through guidance.

It includes to imply the scheme of health to avoid lapses in growth, coordination among the departments, ICT-data use and encourage the states and union territories. The aims of the scheme are to decrease health disorders to two per cent from 28.1 to 22.1 per cent, reduce nutrition problem from 28.5 per cent to 22.5 per cent, and decrease anemeia problem in children of zero to six years age group by 3 per cent from 60.7 per cent to 51.7 per cent and women by 3 per cent by 2022, give nutritious food to children to overcome low weight problem and regular monitoring and required measures for their health. (NSS)