Key Points
• POSHAN Abhiyan is the Indian government’s flagship nutrition programme.
• POSHAN is an acronym for the Prime Minister’s Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nutrition.
• It aims to improve nutritional outcomes for children, pregnant women and lactating mothers.
• It strives to reduce the levels of stunting, undernutrition, anaemia and low birth weight and address the problem of malnutrition in a mission mode.

Poshan Abhiyaan, also known as the National Nutrition Mission (NNM), was launched in 2018 on the occasion of the International Women’s Day by the Government of India with a view to tackling he malnutrition problem among women and children in India.

The mission aims to reduce malnutrition in the country by adopting a synergised and result oriented approach for improving the nutritional status of children from 0-6 years, adolescent girls, pregnant women and lactating mothers in a time bound manner.

Mission Poshan 2.0, an integrated nutrition support programme has been announced in budget 2021-2022 for all 36 States/UTs covering all the Districts.

The mission leverages technology and convergence between various modules and departments.

Under POSHAN Abhiyaan, Aanganwadi workers (AWWs) have been technologically empowered with the provision of smartphones procured through Government e-Market (GeM) for efficient service delivery.

According to the Ministry of Women and Child development (WCD) data, of the ₹5,31,279.08 lakh released for POSHAN Abhiyan between 2018-19 and 2020-21, only ₹2,98,555.92 lakh has been utilised.