NEW DELHI: A report by NITI Aayog, the National Nutrition Mission or the Poshan Abhiyaan must be stepped up to meet the targets set by the Government of India to reduce stunting, wasting and anaemia by 2022. The Poshan Abhiyaan is the world’s largest nutrition programme for children and mothers.
The report by NITI Aayog was drafted in March this year and therefore does not factor worsening poverty and hunger levels in India over the past seven months due to COVID-19. Many experts have warned that this will not only delay achieving the goals defined, but also make dents in strides made since 2018. Arjan De Wagt, chief of nutrition, UNICEF, India, while addressing India Immunity e-Summit held in September 2020, said that COVID-19 has affected the momentum of POSHAN Abhiyan, and induced the nutrition crisis. He added that the government needs to maintain the tempo and get back on track with maximum Coverage, Continuity, Intensity and Quality (CCIQ) to fight back COVID-19.
The government’s policy think tank warns that there is need to now accelerate actions on multiple fronts. NITI Aayog’s third progress report on the Nutrition Mission elucidates the need to strengthen the four pillars of the Abhiyaan and requirement of renewing focus on other social determinants in addition to addressing the governance challenges of National Health Mission/ Integrated Child Development Services (NHM/ICDS) delivery mechanisms.
The report calls for a need to lay as much emphasis on complementary feeding as it does on breastfeeding, which it points out can help avert 60 per cent of the total stunting cases in India.