3 years on, a mere 30% of Poshan Abhiyaan funds used

News:According to the data shared in Parliament, State governments/UTs have utilised a mere 30% of the funds released under the Poshan Abhiyaan or the National Nutrition Mission since it was launched in 2017.

Facts:

Key takeaways from the data:

• The five best performers in terms of fund utilisation were Mizoram , Lakshadweep, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh and Meghalaya.
• The worst five performers were Punjab, Karnataka, Kerala, Jharkhand and Assam.
• The programme was conceptualised to be implemented in phases so the utilisation will increase over the years.
• However,few services have showed a slow start and are now pickling up like the Integrated Child Development Services-Common Application Software(ICDS-CAS).

About Poshan Abhiyan:

• The Prime Minister’s Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nutrition or POSHAN Abhiyaan or National Nutrition Mission is Government of India’s flagship programme.
• It is aimed at improving nutritional outcomes among pregnant women, lactating mothers and children by reducing the level of stunting, underweight, anaemia and low birth weight by 2022.
• The mission is implemented by the Ministry of Women and Child Development.
• The mission targets to reduce stunting, under-nutrition, anaemia (among young children, women and adolescent girls) and reduce low birth weight by 2%, 2%, 3% and 2% per annum respectively. 
• Although the target to reduce Stunting is at least 2% p.a.,it strives to achieve a reduction in Stunting from 38.4% (NFHS-4) to 25% by 2022.

Funding:

• The 50% of the funding is through budgetary support.It is further divided into 60:40 between the Centre and the States, 90:10 for north-eastern region and the Himalayan States and 100% for the Union Territories without legislature.
• The remaining 50% is from the World Bank or other multilateral development banks. 

Additional information:

About ICDS:

• The Integrated Child Development Service (ICDS) was launched in 1975. 
• The scheme comes under the purview of the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD).  
• The beneficiaries under the Scheme are children in the age group of 0-6 years, pregnant women and lactating mothers.

Objectives of ICDS:

• improve the nutritional and health status of children aged 0-6 years
• lay the foundation for proper psychological, physical and social development of the child
• reduce the incidence of mortality, morbidity, malnutrition and school dropout, 
• promote child development through effective coordination of policy and implementation amongst the various departments,
• impart proper nutrition and health education to mothers for enhancing mother’s capability to address normal health and nutritional needs of the child.