Mere 30% of Poshan Abhiyaan Funds Used

Mere 30% of Poshan Abhiyaan Funds Used

Only 30% of the funds released have been utilized under the ambitious Poshan Abhiyaan that aims to improve the nutritional status in the country's entire population and develop the food productive capacity of the States and UTs.

Poshan Abhiyaan:

Poshan Abhiyaan is the Government of India’s flagship program which aims at improving nutritional outcomes among pregnant women, lactating mothers, and children by reducing the level of stunting, underweight, anemia, and low birth weight by 2022.

In a recent leap towards inclusive development, the union government announced the launch of Poshan Abhiyaan (Abhiyan), which targets to achieve universal coverage of every district in the country in the next three years. The initiative announces a three-pronged attack to combat acute malnutrition.

Almost 50% of the total budget for Swachh Bharat comes from World Bank or other multilateral development banks, while the Centre’s budgetary allocation accounts for the rest 50%.

Centre’s budgetary support is further divided into 60:40 between the Centre and the States, 90:10 for the north-eastern region and the Himalayan States and 100% for the Union Territories without legislature.

The programme was conceptualised to be implemented in phases so the utilisation will increase over the years. Few services showed a slow start and are now pickling up like the Integrated Child Development Services-Common Application Software (ICDS-CAS).

The Ministry of Health and Welfare released the Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey (CNNS) in October which showed that 35% of children under the age of 5 are stunted and in this age group, 17% are wasted (low weight for height) and 33% underweight (low weight for age).

Best Five Performers- Mizoram (65.12%) > Lakshadweep (61.08%) > Bihar (55.17%) > Himachal Pradesh (53.29%) > Meghalaya (48.37%).

Worst Five Performers- Punjab (0.45%) < Karnataka (0.74%) < Kerala (8.75%) < Jharkhand (13.94%) < Assam (23.01%).

Integrated Child Development Services

The Centre’s budgetary support is further divided into 60:40 between the Centre and the States, 90:10 for the north-eastern region and the Himalayan States and 100% for the Union Territories without legislature.

Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), is a Central Sector Scheme formulated by the Ministry of Women and Child Development.

The Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) is one of the flagship programmes to undertake the challenge of child development and protection in India. It provides a package of six services namely supplementary nutrition, pre-school non-formal education, nutrition & health education, immunization, health check-up and referral services.

Common Application Software is intended to use technology for furthering of the objectives of the scheme. The Common Application Software facilitates capturing of relevant data for effective monitoring and evaluation of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme.