Kupwara: Under Union Government’s flagship programme ‘POSHAN Abhiyaan’, the Department of Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Kupwara has been rigorously involved in proper implementation of the scheme in this border district Kupwara to overcome malnutrition among children, pregnant ladies and lactating women.
This Abhiyaan had got prioritized attention after Prime Minister, Narendra Modi himself launched it from Jhunjhunu in Rajasthan on March 8, 2018 to improve the nutritional outcomes for children, pregnant women and lactating mothers by holistically addressing the multiple determinants of malnutrition.
The District Nodal Officer for POSHAN Abhiyaan, Ghulam Mohi-Ud-Din Lone said that over a period of time, the ICDS Kupwara has organised a number of events and programmes to raise awareness about the scheme and highlight its benefits to the target population, besides extending the benefits under it to the same so that the district is able to address the issue of malnutrition.
He said besides, to achieve the desired target, special anemia camps are also being organized throughout the district especially in far flung areas to identify the malnourished beneficiaries and for monitoring and follow-up of identified malnourished beneficiaries including 0-6 year children, lactating mothers, pregnant ladies and adolescent girls.
Distribution of Iron Folic Acid (IFA) in various forms to target groups in convergence with the Health department is a continuous process throughout the district, informs lone. He adds that the ICDS department in collaboration with AYUSH department has also been distributing iron rich medicines and immune boosters’ in view of the current pandemic situation during special camps for anemia checkups.
Moreover, the supply of organic manure and hybrid seed to Anganwadi Centres (AWCs) in convergence with the Agriculture department has been quite beneficial in growing nutritious vegetables in already established Nutri gardens at AWCs, said the District Nodal Officer.
Listing the remarkable achievements that the department has recorded under various parameters of POSHAN Abhiyan, he said that the number of underweight children of 0-6 year age group as on 01 April, 2019 was 5775 in the district which has been reduced to 1495 as on 31 December, 2021, thereby registering 74.12 percent decline.
Similarly, the number of wasted children (0-6 yrs) has been reduced from 641 in April 2019 to 82 in December 2021. Besides, the number of children in the same age group having anaemia has been reduced from 2628 to 281 during the same period. The numbers of Pregnant Women and Lactating Mothers and Adolescent Girls having anaemia have also been reduced from 1682 to 329 during the same period.
Regarding augmentation of Anganwadi Centres (AWCs), he said that the POSHAN Vatikas/Nutri Gardens have been increased from 1827 to 2318 during April 2019 to December 2021. Besides, AWCs with functional toilets are now 2244 which was 1245 earlier and 2320 AWCs have drinking water facilities.
In order to facilitate real time monitoring of anemia, stunting, and low birth weight among enrolled beneficiaries, the ICDS department has distributed smartphones among Anganwadi Workers in all 2320 AWCs of the district. And to ensure proper use of smartphones, training has also been imparted to AWWs by experts from CSC e-Governance service India Limited.
Lone says that this has resulted in timely uploading of details of beneficiaries and other allied information on POSHAN Abhiyan Portal by the AWWs.
He credits the Deputy Commissioner Kupwara, Imam Din for paving the way for mitigation of malnutrition among the target population in the district by taking keen interest in it and conducting review meetings with the concerned department to get the desirable results on ground. (Report by DIPR-JK)
