POSHAN 2.0 is an Integrated Nutrition Support Programme aimed at addressing malnutrition challenges in children, adolescent girls, pregnant women, and lactating mothers. The objectives of POSHAN 2.0 are to contribute to the human capital development of the country, address challenges of malnutrition, promote nutrition awareness and good eating habits for sustainable health and wellbeing, and address nutrition-related deficiencies through key strategies. More details about POSHAN 2.0 are available at Guidelines for Mission Saksham Anganwadi and POSHAN 2.0 

POSHAN Abhiyan serves as the pillar for Outreach, covering innovations related to nutritional support, ICT interventions, Media Advocacy, Research, Community Outreach, and Jan Andolan.

The important components of Saksham Anganwadi and POSHAN 2.0 include Nutrition Support for POSHAN, Early Childhood Care and Education, Anganwadi Infrastructure, and POSHAN Abhiyaan.

The beneficiaries under the Anganwadi Services Scheme are children in the age group of 0-6 years, pregnant women, lactating mothers, and adolescent girls in the age group 14-18 years. The Scheme is open to all eligible beneficiaries on demand, irrespective of caste, religion, and income criteria. However, the beneficiary needs to register at the nearest Anganwadi Centre with their Aadhaar.

POSHAN 2.0 aims to improve nutrition delivery through transparency, accountability, balanced diets, diet diversity, greater grassroots involvement, and last-mile delivery of services.

POSHAN Abhiyaan is being implemented in all the districts of the country, in all 36 States/UTs.

WHO defines Malnutrition as deficiencies, excesses, or imbalances in a person’s intake of energy and/or nutrients. The term malnutrition addresses 3 broad groups of conditions:

• Undernutrition, which includes wasting (low weight-for-height), stunting (low height-for-age) and underweight (low weight-for-age);

Micronutrient-related malnutrition, which includes micronutrient deficiencies (a lack of important vitamins and minerals) or micronutrient excess; and

• Overweight, obesity and diet-related non-communicable diseases (such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes and some cancers).

POSHAN Vatikas, key component under Abhiyaan plays an important role in enhancing dietary diversity by providing key micronutrients through local fruits and vegetables. Nutri-gardens aims to provide a fresh and regular supply of locally produced fruits, vegetables and medicinal plants to women and children straight from a nutri-garden at or near an Anganwadi Centre.

According to WHO, stunting is known as low height-for-age. Stunting is an indicator of linear growth retardation. A stunted child fails to achieve expected height/length as compared to healthy, well- nourished children of the same age.

According to WHO, wasting is known as Low weight-for-height. It usually indicates recent and severe weight loss, because a person has not had enough food to eat and/or they have had an infectious disease, such as diarrhoea, which has caused them to lose weight.

According to WHO, underweight is known as low weight-for-age. Underweight can result from either chronic or acute malnutrition or both.

SAM is the abbreviated form of Severe Acute Malnutrition. SAM is a condition in which a child has a very low weight in relation to length/height. It is a severe form of wasting.

MAM is the abbreviated form of Moderate Acute Malnutrition. MAM is defined as weight-for-height between -2 and -3 SD as per WHO growth standard.

Identification of SAM and MAM children is done through active screening by AWW/ASHA through house to house visit looking for presence/absence of bilateral pitting edema or severe degree of wasting.

Acute malnutrition is addressed in the community as per the standardized care detailed in the protocol on Community Management of Malnutrition (CMAM). The community-based approach involves timely detection, screening and management for those without medical complications with wholesome, local nutritious foods at home and supportive medical care. Those malnourished children which have medical complications are referred for facility-based care.

Under Mission POSHAN 2.0, Supplementary nutrition is provided to beneficiaries for a minimum of 300 days in a calendar year, i.e., on an average 25 days in a month with respect to Morning Snacks, Hot Cooked Meals (HCM) and Take-Home Ration .

Growth monitoring has been defined as “the regular measurement, recording and interpretation of a child's growth change in order to counsel, act and follow up results”. Growth measurement i.e., length/height & weight is essential for all children to obtain their status as Normal, Underweight, Stunted, SAM or MAM. Growth Monitoring Devices are equipments used to accurately measure height and weight of beneficiaries. In this context, each Anganwadi Centre has been provisioned to be equipped with Growth Monitoring Devices (GMDs) comprising of Stadiometer, Infantometer, Weighing Scale for Infant and Mother & Child.

When beneficiaries of the scheme migrate from one place to other, they can avail the benefits of scheme from nearest Angwadi centre within and outside a State by availing the Migration facility.

The POSHAN Tracker application was rolled out by the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MoWCD) on 1st March 2021 through National e-Governance Division (NeGD). The POSHAN Tracker application serves the purpose of strengthening and bringing transparency to nutrition delivery support systems. Technology under the POSHAN Tracker is leveraged for dynamic identification of stunting, wasting, under-weight prevalence among children and last-mile tracking of nutrition service delivery. POSHAN Tracker dashboard is accessible at POSHANTracker portal.

The POSHAN Tracker enables real-time monitoring and tracking of all Anganwadi Centers (AWCs), Anganwadi Workers (AWWs), and beneficiaries on defined indicators. The POSHAN Tracker uses technology to provide timely updates and insights into various aspects, including but not limited to:

Daily Attendance: Tracking the attendance of beneficiaries and workers at Anganwadi Centres in real-time.

Provision of Hot Cooked Meal (HCM)/Take Home Ration (THR): Ensuring timely and accurate data on the distribution of meals or rations.

Supplementary Nutrition Provisioning: Monitoring the real-time delivery of supplementary nutrition to beneficiaries.

Growth Measurement: Immediate recording and analysis of growth measurements of children.

The mobile application of POSHAN Tracker provides counseling videos on key behaviors and services. These videos disseminate messages on various aspects, including birth preparedness, delivery, post-natal care, breastfeeding, and complementary feeding.

The POSHAN Tracker is available in 24 languages, including Khasi and Garo.

The Abhiyaan focuses on converting the agenda of improving nutrition into a Jan Andolan through involvement of Panchayati Raj Institutions/ Village Organizations/ SHGs etc. and ensuring wide public participation. Accordingly, Inter-Ministerial Guidelines on Jan Andolan have been developed and released to achieve convergence and synergize efforts towards achieving the desired Goals.

POSHAN Abhiyaan strengthens processes for community engagement, empowerment of beneficiaries, and behavioral change towards better nutrition through CBEs and Jan Andolans.

It is one of the important components of the scheme that helps reach out to the entire country through Jan Andolans (Peoples’ Participation). Since 2018, all the States/UTs and around 20 partner Ministries/ Departments are carrying out IEC activities on a regular basis, twice annually through the nation’s largest nutrition-centric annual Jan Andolans viz. POSHAN Maah and POSHAN Pakhwada. There is a dedicated Jan Andolan Dashboard to capture every minute details of each Jan Andolan.

To focus on nutrition, and to increase awareness on relevant practices and behaviours, two major outreach and social & behaviour change campaigns are undertaken under the Jan Andolan component of POSHAN Abhiyaan viz. Rashtriya Poshan Maah (month-long campaign held in September) and Poshan Pakhwada (fortnight campaign held in March-April). Key mass engagement activities include Poshan Melas, Rally on nutrition at all level, Prabhat Pheree, Session on nutrition at schools, Self-Help Group meetings, Anaemia camps, growth monitoring of children, home visits of newborn babies by ASHA/AWW, Village Health, Sanitation and Nutrition Day (VHSND), Community Based Events (CBE), along with additional themes like Millet promotion, Water conservation, Growth measurement, Pre-school education etc. are carried out in these Jan Andolans.

The primary focus of CBE is to take advantage of traditional celebrations of milestones in the mother or a child’s life beginning with conception, prenatal, neonatal and the first two years. Use these as opportunities to promote the adoption of positive behaviour. The themes under community-based events are associated with maternal, newborn/children health and nutrition. CBEs may include Annaprashan Diwas, Suposan Diwas, celebrating coming of age for pre-school at AWC, messages related to public health, hand-washing and sanitation (WaSH), prevention of anemia, and importance of nutritious food and diet diversity etc. Community Based Events (CBEs) are organized twice per month by each Anganwadi Centre.

Besides nutrition, health and hygiene education are also imparted to the beneficiaries of POSHAN Abhiyaan through monthly sessions. Village Health and Nutrition Day (VHND) was conceptualised under the National Health Mission (NHM). It has been implemented across the country since 2007 as a community platform. VHSND serves as a platform for provision of preventive services to all sections of the population esp. to marginalised and vulnerable communities.

The District Magistrate serves as the Nodal Point in the district for monitoring nutritional status and quality standards.

The primary role of Anganwadi Workers in POSHAN 2.0 is to elicit community support and participation in running the program. Anganwadi Workers weigh each child every month, record the weight graphically on the growth card, and use referral cards for cases of mothers/children requiring attention from sub-centers/PHC. Anganwadi Workers are required to feed relevant beneficiary data in the POSHAN Tracker app regularly and generate/submit reports/returns as specified.

Anganwadi Workers organize non-formal pre-school activities in the Anganwadi for children aged 3-6 years and contribute to designing and making toys and play equipment. Anganwadi Workers organize supplementary nutrition feeding for children (0-6 years) and expectant/nursing mothers by planning the menu based on locally available ingredients and recipes. Anganwadi Workers provide health and nutrition education, counseling on breastfeeding, infant and young child feeding practices, and motivate married women for family planning/birth control measures. Anganwadi Workers help pregnant and lactating mothers visiting the Anganwadi center to get the birth of their child registered and share the information with the village-level functionary for notification.

The primary responsibility of Anganwadi Helpers is to open the Angawadi Centre, cook and serve food to beneficiaries. Anganwadi Helpers clean the Anganwadi premises daily, fetch water, ensure cleanliness in young children, bring children from the village community to the Anganwadi center, and help the Anganwadi Worker (AWW) in the smooth discharge of her duties. In the absence of the Anganwadi Worker (AWW), the Anganwadi Helper shall carry out her functions and discharge her responsibilities.