Ministry of Women and Child Development, the nodal ministry for the National Nutrition Mission/ Poshan Abhiyaan, recognized exemplary works at all levels and across Ministries/Departments during the Poshan Maah as part of the Poshan Maah Award Ceremony held in New Delhi, today.The Awards ceremony was graced by Dr. Rajiv Kumar, Vice- Chairman, NITI Aayog, Dr. Vinod K. Paul, Member NITI Aayog, Shri. Rakesh Srivastava, Secretary, Ministry of WCD and many other high ranking officials of various ministries.Giving the details of the outcome of the Poshan Maah,Secretary, Shri. Rakesh Srivastava said that the Poshan Maah celebrated in the month of September saw 25.4 Cr total participation with22.58 Lakh activities conducted all across the country. Madhya Pradesh topped the list of states with 7.7 Lakh activities followed by Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu,Gujarat, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra. He said that of the out of 22.58 lakh activities, 32% was conducted jointly by field functionaries, around 21% activities were convergence of inter ministry activities. The Secretary said that successful convergence of efforts was the biggest take away.Delivering the Key Note address, Dr. Rajiv Kumar, Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog said that it is unacceptable for a country known for its knowledge economy to have 38% of its children under-nourished and hence it was of utmost priority to make the country Malnutrition free. He said that Poshan Abhiyaan or the National Nutrition Mission was in itself an amazing example of achieving convergence and jointmanship.
Applauding the Achievement of Ministry of WCD he said that this outcome of taking the Nutrition initiative to 25 crore people in 1 month will set an example for all other projects of NITI Aayog, to work across ministries and stakeholders.Present at the event, Member (Health&Nutrition) Dr.Vinod K Paul, said that the Poshan Abhiyaan idea was a tribute to the leadership of the Prime Minister and his vision for the country. The Poshan Abhiyaan mainly aims to bring about a People’s Movement/ Jan Aandolan way and to reboot the involvement of govt. in a never before way. As a result, the Mission has seen an unprecedented reach out to 25 crore participants way more than the targeted 10 crores. He congratulated the efforts of Anganwadi Workers, ASHA and ANM for the outstanding Jointmanship exhibited.More than 206 awards including a medal and certificate of appreciation was presented under various categories to field level functionaries and institutions drawn from acrossthe country. The awards were given in various categories such as Field functionary awards for Individual excellence; (AAA)+ Awards for ASHA, ANM, Anganwadi Workers; Village Convergence awards; Leadership Awards; State level Awards for Best Social Media Campaign, Maximum reach across all themes, Best /innovative use of non-conventional methods for spreading awareness on PoshanAbhiyan and implementation of Convergence action plan.It was also announced in the AwardsCeremony that 150 crores wasearmarked for recognising the good works of field functionaries and cash awards would be instituted and given at the one year anniversary celebrations of PoshanAbhiyaanin March 2019. The guidelines for this would soon be formulated.