Name of the Scheme –Saksham Anganwadi and POSHAN 2.0 (Umbrella ICDS – Anganwadi Services, Poshan Abhiyan, Scheme for Adolescent Girls)
Department – Social Welfare
Scheme for : Individual
Where to Apply : Anganwadi Centres.
When to Apply : Any time of the year
Introduction
Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 (hereinafter referred to as Poshan 2.0) is an Integrated Nutrition Support Programme. It seeks to address the challenges of malnutrition in children, adolescent girls, pregnant women and lactating mothers through a strategic shift in nutrition content and delivery and by creation of a convergent eco- system to develop and promote practices that nurture health, wellness and immunity.
- Poshan
Poshan 2.0 shall focus on Maternal Nutrition, Infant and Young Child Feeding Norms, Treatment of MAM/SAM and Wellness through AYUSH. It will rest on the pillars of Convergence, Governance, and Capacity-building. Poshan Abhiyan will be the pillar for Outreach and will cover innovations related to nutritional support, ICT interventions, Media Advocacy and Research, Community Outreach and Jan Andolan.
Adequate health care, nutrition, security, safety, responsive care giving and opportunities for early learning are essential for children to achieve their full human potential. Therefore, Early Childhood Care and Education is an integral component of the programme. Recognizing that early childhood care constitutes the foundation of human development, the Scheme is designed to promote holistic development of children under six years of age through improved ECCE content and delivery of cognitive, emotional, social and intellectual development of the child to make all pre-schooler’s school ready and for seamless integration of children in the age group of 5-6 in Grade I under the National Education Policy, 2020. The programme is specifically designed to reach disadvantaged and low-income groups, for effective disparity reduction.
The current Anganwadi Services Scheme is one of the largest and unique programmes of the Govt. of India for early childhood care and development. It is a firm testament of the country’s commitment to its children and nursing mothers to respond to the challenge of providing pre-school non-formal education on one hand and break the vicious cycle of malnutrition, morbidity, reduced learning capacity and mortality on the other. The beneficiaries under this scheme are children in the age group of 0-6 years, pregnant women and lactating mothers and adolescent girls in the age group 14-18 years.
Objectives
To prepare a comprehensive strategy to address the challenge of malnutrition, the Supplementary Nutrition Programme under Anganwadi Services, Scheme for Adolescent Girls and Poshan Abhiyaan have been aligned under Poshan 2.0 as an Integrated Nutrition Support Programme. The objectives of Poshan 2.0 are as follows:
· To contribute to 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.
Poshan 2.0 shall focus on Maternal Nutrition, Infant and Young Child Feeding Norms, Treatment Protocols for SAM/MAM and Wellness through AYUSH practices to reduce wasting and under-weight prevalence besides stunting and anemia, supported by the ‘Poshan Tracker’, a new, robust ICT centralised data system which is being linked with the RCH Portal (Anmol) of MoHFW.
Poshan 2.0 shall seek to optimize the quality and delivery of nutrition under the Supplementary Nutrition Program.
Important components of Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0
With a view to address various gaps and shortcomings in the on-going nutrition programme and to improve implementation as well as to accelerate improvement in nutrition and child development outcomes, the existing scheme components have been re-organized under Poshan 2.0 into the primary verticals given below:
· Nutrition Support for POSHAN through Supplementary Nutrition Programme (SNP) for children of the age group of 06 months to 6 years, pregnant women and lactating mothers (PWLM); and for Adolescent Girls in the age group of 14 to 18 years in Aspirational Districts and North Eastern Region (NER);
· Early Childhood Care and Education [3-6 years]and early stimulation for (0-3 years);
· Anganwadi Infrastructure including modern, upgraded Saksham Anganwadi; and
· Poshan Abhiyaan
Package of Services
The Anganwadi Services Scheme provides the following package of services in an integrated manner to eligible beneficiaries:
- supplementary nutrition
- pre-school non-formal education
- nutrition & health education
- immunization
- health check-up and
- referral services
Three of the six services, viz., immunization, health check-up and referral services, are related to health and are provided by through NHM & Public Health Infrastructure.
Salient Features
The Anganwadi Services Scheme under Poshan 2.0 has been approved for implementation during the 15th Finance Commission period i.e. from 2021-22 to 2025-26. The salient features of the scheme are as follows:
- Beneficiaries covered under the Scheme are ‘Children upto the age of 6 years; Pregnant Women and Lactating Mothers (PW&LM) and Adolescent Girls (14-18 years) in Aspirational Districts and North Eastern States.
- This Scheme is open to all eligible beneficiaries on demand, irrespective of caste, religion and income criteria. The only pre-condition is that the beneficiary has to be registered at the nearest Anganwadi Centre with Aadhaar identification. A child’s Aadhaar card shall not be mandatory for availing the benefits under the Scheme. The benefits under the scheme can be accessed using the mother’s Aadhaar card.
- Funds for Aadhaar enrolment kits have been placed with the States/UTs and effort shall be made by States/UTs to enroll beneficiaries at the AWC itself.
- It shall be the duty and responsibility of AWW, Supervisor, Child Development Project Officer (CDPO) and District Programme Officer (DPO) concerned, to ensure that Supplementary Nutrition is provided to beneficiaries without any disruption. Assistance shall be extended by them to a beneficiary in obtaining Aadhaar Card, in case the beneficiary does not possess Aadhaar identification.
- Health check-up and referral services under Anganwadi Services shall continue to be provided through NHM and Public Health Infrastructure by ASHA and ANM. Besides, ASHA and ANM shall undertake regular screening of beneficiaries for assessment of anemia and diabetes. ASHA and ANM shall additionally screen children with special needs who require assistance for disabilities that may be medical or psychological.
- Specifically, the following services shall be provided by MoHFW at the AWC platform: Health Services:
- Iron syrup for 6 months to 5-year-old child: 1 ml twice in a week
- IFA tablets during pregnancy and post-pregnancy
- 12 months to 5-year-old child: De-worming tablet once in 6 months
- Pregnant Women: 1 de-worming tablet during second trimester
- Vitamin A supplementation for 9 months to 5-year-old child bi-annually
- Diarrhoea management: ORS, Zinc Supplementation Referral Services:
- Severely Malnourished (SAM) to be referred to hospital or Nutrition Rehabilitation Centre
- Care of Sick children Immunization:
- For pregnant women two Tetanus Toxoid shots and all vaccines for children under Health schedule
- Growth measurement i.e., length/height & weight is essential for all children to obtain their status as Normal, Underweight, Stunted, SAM or MAM. Efforts shall be made for 100% measurement of the children. Any child who could not be measured in a particular month has to be compulsorily measured in the following month as per the following schedule:
| Children 6 months to 6 years | Frequency |
| Height | Every Month |
| Weight | Every Month |
States/UTs shall consider paying compensation as appropriate for parents of severely acutely malnourished children who are undergoing treatment at NRC to compensate for wage loss for the duration of stay.
2. Saksham Anganwadi
Under Saksham Anganwadi, 2 lakh AWCs @ 40,000 AWCs per year shall be strengthened, upgraded and rejuvenated across the country for improving nutrition delivery including Poshan Vatikas for stimulating the creative, social, emotional, cognitive and intellectual development of children under 6 years of age in convergence with education development programmes, providing/adding more services with better infrastructure including internet/wifi connectivity, LED screens, water purifier/installation of RO machine and Early Childhood Care and Education with smart learning aids, audio-visual aids, child-friendly learning equipment and art work (educational painting, practice board for children, information board), etc.
States/UTs shall decide on engaging BharatNet/other Internet Services Providers for provision of broadband Wi-Fi connectivity at Saksham Anganwadi.
One of the important features in Saksham Anganwadi is installation of Rain Water Harvesting System. Keeping in view the increasing pressure on natural water resources, limited availability of potable water, contamination of fresh water eco-system from developmental activities and to make the “Jal Shakti Abhiyaan: Catch The Rain” campaign successful, it has been approved to install Rain Water Harvesting Structures in 2 lakh AWC buildings as Saksham Anganwadi across the country in 5 years. RWHS shall be constructed as per local need/expertise as advised by local Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) Office.
Under Poshan 2.0, the Scheme for Adolescent Girls has been revised and the targeted beneficiaries have been revised to Adolescent Girls in the age group of 14 to 18 years in Aspirational Districts of States including Assam and North Eastern States instead of out of school girls in the age group of 11-14 years, as in the earlier Scheme.
Objective of the Scheme
The revised Scheme will address the inter-generational problem of malnutrition by focusing on adolescent girls keeping in view the life cycle approach. The revised scheme aims at providing nutritional support to adolescent girls in the age group of 14 to 18 years in the identified areas of the country for improving their health and nutritional status under the nutrition component and providing them IFA supplementation, Health check-up and Referral Service, Nutrition & Health Education and Skilling etc. under non-nutrition component of the Scheme.
Coverage of the Scheme
Adolescent girls in the age group (14-18 years) in Aspirational Districts of States including Assam and North-Eastern States shall be covered under SAG.
Eligibility The beneficiaries for the Scheme will be Adolescent Girls in the age group of 14-18 years who will be identified by the States concerned. All beneficiaries will require Aadhaar number to avail benefits under the scheme.
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