Vice President of India, M. Venkaiah Naidu launched the POSHAN Anthem in New Delhi today. Minister of Women and Child Development, Smriti Zubin Irani, Minister of State for Women and Child Development, Debashree Choudhary, Vice Chairman NITI Aayog, Rajiv Kumar, Secretary Ministry of Women and Child Development, Rabindra Panwar, Neerja Choudhary, convener of Citizen’s Alliance Against Malnutrition were present on this occasion. Representatives of partner Ministries and Development Partners also attended the event.The aim of the POSHAN Anthem is to inspire people to join the movement to fight the scourge of malnutrition. Speaking on this occasion the Vice President of India congratulated Prasoon Joshi and Shankar Mahadevan, the lyricist and music composer and singer of the anthem and hoped that through this song the message of nutrition will reach each and every corner of the country. He appreciated the efforts of the Ministry of Women and Child Development in using innovative tools to take the message of nutrition to all citizens of India. The Vice President also urged that the anthem may be sung in as many regional languages as possible so that it becomes a song of the people. The overriding priority of all legislators, administrators, civil society activists and citizens must be to ensure that all children of the country get the best possible childhood added the Vice President. He further said that the 1.3 million Anganwadi workers are the nutrition warriors and change agents who are at the forefront of this battle against malnutrition. He hoped that the song will become an anthem and lead to a nutrition revolution to transform India in to a malnutrition free country by 2022.The song with simple words and tune can be sung by all and will encourage citizens to take up the eradication of malnutrition in the country as a mission.
The anthem covers issues of women and children like anaemia and it also embodies the aspirations of young Indians. There are references to water and cleanliness that will inspire Indians to join in the movement for Swacch, Swasth and Shrestha Bharat.The Anthem has been written by Prasoon Joshi and composed and sung by Shankar Mahadevan.The POSHAN Abhiyaan through the use of technology, a targeted approach and convergence among stakeholders is attempting to reduce the level of stunting, under-nutrition, anaemia and low birth weight in children. It is also focussing on adolescent girls, pregnant women and lactating mothers, thereby addressing malnutrition holistically.With an objective to sustain and intensify the POSHAN Jan Andolan, the Ministry of Women and Child Development has conceptualized a Poshan Anthem. This will help in increasing visibility of the Abhiyaan and also generate awareness among citizens on nutrition. The POSHAN (PM’s Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nourishment) Abhiyan was launched in March 2018 by Prime Minister of India.The goal of Poshan Abhiyaan is to achieve improvement in nutritional status of Children (0-6 years) and Pregnant Women and Lactating Mothers (PW&LM) in a time bound manner in next three-year period beginning 2017-18.For achieving the above targets, Poshan Abhiyaan is to ensure convergence of all nutrition related schemes of the Ministry of Women and Child Development on the target population. This includes convergence of Anganwadi Services, Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana, Scheme for Adolescent Girls of Ministry of Women & Child Development; Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY), National Health Mission (NHM) of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Swachh Bharat Mission of Ministry of Jal Shakti; Public Distribution System (PDS) of Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food& Public Distribution (CAF&PD), Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) of Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) and other programmatic interventions of Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Ministry of Tribal Affairs and Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. Convergence Action Plan guidelines in this regard have been issued to all the States/UTs and line Ministries.