To mark the beginning of National Nutrition Month, Deputy Commissioner Shopian, Dr. Owais Ahmed today inaugurated a day-long State Level Workshop on POSHAN Abhiyan- the PM’s Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nourishment of children.The launching ceremony, organized by, ICDS Department Shopian here at Mini Secretariat Arhama Shopian, was attended by Additional Deputy Commissioner Shopian, Parvaiz Sajad Ganai, who is also Progamme Officer ICDS Shopian, besides, Scientists from KVK Shopian, Block Medical Officer, CDPOs and other officers of concerned departments.Emphasizing the role of nutrition for health, especially for children and women, the DDC said that POSHAN Abhiyan is one of the many important components of National Nutrition Mission aiming towards promoting positive behaviour change towards infants and young child feeding practices.He said that the welfare of children forms the base for many schemes and policies and stressed on convergent efforts by all stakeholders to achieve the challenging task of eradicating malnutrition.Maintaining basic health standards is not only aimed by India but United Nation has also set its goals for eradicating malnutrition, the DDC maintained.
The DDC appreciated all the, CDPOs and other concerned officers for putting dedicated efforts towards fighting malnutrition and asked them to prioritize rural, far flung and slum areas for extending the outreach of nutrition awareness.The DDC also outlined the responsibilities of concerned functionaries to make the system efficient for the benefit of the children being covered under ICDS schemes. The DDC entrusted upon concerned officers to form a working group to ensure that good quality food, clean drinking water shall reach the children. He further asked them to prepare a proposal for effective utilization of abandoned school buildings for the welfare of children and women.The participants learned several key nutrition strategies and interventions including IYCF(Infant and Young child feeding),Food and Nutrition, Immunisation, Institutional Delivery, WASH(Water, Sanitation and Hygiene),De-worming, ORS-Zinc, Food Fortification, Dietary Diversification, Adolescent Nutrition, Maternal Health and Nutrition, ECD(Early childhood development)/ECCE(Early Childhood care and Education), Convergence, ICT-RTM(Information and Communication, Technology enabled Real Time Monitoring) and Capacity Building during the workshop.