Government to celebrate ‘Poshan Pakhwada’ from 8th to 22nd March 2019 across the Country: Smt Maneka Sanjay Gandhi

New Delhi: The Minister for Women and Child Development, Smt. Maneka Sanjay Gandhi today announced that the Government will celebrate the first anniversary of POSHAN Abhiyaan on 8^th March, 2019 by organising Poshan Pakhwada across the Country. Briefing media, the WCD Minister said that Poshan Pakhwada will be celebrated as part of Jan Andolan under POSHAN Abhiyaan from 08^th to 22^nd March, 2019. Secretary, WCD, Shri Rakesh Shrivastava was present at the briefing.

Speaking on the occasion, Smt Maneka Gandhi said that the Poshan Pakhwada will be celebrated on lines of ‘Poshan Maah’ held in the month of September, 2018. The Pakhwada will be launched on International Women’s Day, 8^th March, 2019. The Minister informed that the Ministry of Women & Child Development is the nodal ministry for coordinating activities during the month, accordingly, State/UT WCD/Social Welfare Department will be nodal Department for a similar role. The event will be celebrated in convergence mode.

The Minister also informed about the key activities which 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) will be carried out . Further IEC activities through mass media, mid media and Social Media will be carried out during Poshan Pakhwada. Social Media Campaign Hashtag #PoshanPakhwada through media partners and team of Swasth Bharat Preraks would be carried out for maximum reach. During Poshan Pakhwada awareness on nutrition in urban area will also be focused. During the Poshan Pakhwada it is also planned to organise workshop on Agri-Nutrition on 15^th March 2019.

The Jan Andolan Guidelines which are Multi Sectorial and cover 12 basic themes will be utilised to activate various platforms at ground level. The Jan Andolan Dashboard at website http://poshanabhiyaan.gov.in will have a separate tab to reflect aggregated outcomes of the Poshan Pakhwada. Entry of all activities will be made on periodical basis at block level. Previously, Poshan Maah had garnered 25 crore participation across 22 lakh activities across the country.

All the concerned Ministries/Departments and States/UTs play a key role for implementing various activities during the Pakhwada as was done during Poshan Maah. Activities are planned to be carried out by all the Ministries/Departments by involving the concerned Departments of States/UTs upto the grass root level all the field functionaries during Pakhwada. The Ministries/Departments and States/UTs may also add any other activities for creating awareness.

Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Drinking Water & Sanitation, Rural Development, Human Resource & Development, Information & Broadcasting, Panchayati Raj, Tribal Affairs, Housing and Urban Affairs, Electronics and Information Technology, Minority Affairs, AYUSH, Sports & Youths Affairs,   Social Justice and Empowerment, Ministry of Agriculture Cooperation and Farmers Welfare and Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution will partner with WCD Ministry during the Poshan Pakhwada. At the grass root level platform like Gram Sabhas, SHGs, and Field functionaries across various Ministries & Schemes will be used.

Details about suggested activities for Poshan Pakhwada and the schedule are given below in the Annexure -A & B:     Annexure A

Suggested Activities of Poshan Pakhwada

Annexure B

Poshan Pakhwada Activity Schedule