Joining the rest of the nation in taking ‘poshan abhiyaan’ to address nutritional deficiencies, Assam Governor Prof Jagdish Mukhi on Wednesday launched the ceremonial beginning of Poshan Maah (Poshan Month) at a function held at Srimanta Sankardeva Kalakhshetra in Guwahati.
It may be noted that the entire September month is celebrated as Rashtriya Poshan Maah and this year the theme is ‘complementary feeding’ with the vision to address malnutrition with a targeted approach by 2022.
Also read: Assam: Sivasagar launches Rashtriya Poshan Maah
Speaking on the occasion, Governor Prof Mukhi said that Poshan Abhiyaan has been launched to emphasize the need for healthy nutrition and it should be the one liner objective to generate awareness about this mission to involve more and more people so that no targeted group is left behind.
He at the same time observed that special emphasis should be given at the tea garden areas to make up the nutritional deficiency and reduce low birth weight in those areas. He said that though the programme strives to reduce the level of stunting, under-nutrition, anaemia and low birth weight among babies without the unified efforts it will be very difficult to achieve the target and therefore, urged upon inter-departmental convergence for the success of the abhiyaan.
The Governor also exhorted the need for coordination, convergence and cordiality among all the stake holders for making Poshan Maah huge success.
He also advocated on ICT based Real Time Monitoring system, incentivizing Anganwadi Workers for using IT based tools, introducing measurement of height of children at the Anganwadi Centres, social audits to achieve the objective of attaining a malnutrition free India by 2022.
Prof Mukhi urged upon the Social Welfare Minister Pramila Rani Brahma to motivate officers of the government along with other stake holders to transform Poshan Abhiyaan into a Jana Andolan so that no target group is deprived of essential nutrition.
He also appealed to everybody to propel Poshan Abhiyaan as a tool to social empowerment.
As a part of the programme a pledge was also administered making a mal-nutrition free India by 2022.
Social Welfare Minister Pramila Rani Brahma also highlighted on the key steps taken by her department in implementing the Poshan Maah and called upon the stake holders to put in their best efforts to achieve the goal and wipe out malnutrition by 2022.
Additional chief secretary Social Welfare Jishnu Baruah, secretary of Social Welfare Hemen Das, director in-charge of Social Welfare department Kansar Jami Hilaly also spoke on the occasion.
CDPO, Supervisors, Anganwadi workers of the Social Welfare Department participated in the launching programme along with others.
