Rs 52,444 crores released to states under Mission Saksham Anganwadi, Poshan 2.0 from 2021-24

NEW DELHI: The union minister of women and child development Samriti Irani told the Parliament that Rs 52,444 crores have been released under the Mission Saksham Anganwadi and Mission Poshan 2.0. The minister added that a sum of 18,367 crores was released in 2021-22. In 2022-23 and 2023-24 (till January), an amount of Rs 14,892 crores and 19,184 crores was released to the states under the schemes.

The minister was replying to questions raised by Member of Parliament (MP) Manas Ranjan Mangaraj. The minister informed the parliament that the components of nutritional support for children below the age of 6 years, pregnant women and lactating mother, adolescent Girls (14 – 18 years); early childhood care and education (3-6 years); anganwadi infrastructure including modern, upgraded saksham anganwadi, Poshan Abhiyaan and Scheme for Adolescent Girls have been reorganised under the Mission Saksham Anganwadi and Mission Poshan 2.0.

Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Maharashtra, Bihar and Gujarat have received the most funds respectively while Goa, Tamil Nadu, Mizoram Manipur and Nagaland have been given the least funds under the scheme, this fiscal.

She also informed the MPs that a third party evaluation of all centrally-sponsored schemes in women and child development sector, including anganwadi services, Poshan Abhiyaan was conducted by NITI Aayog in 2020. “The evaluation found the relevance of Anganwadi Services scheme and Poshan Abhiyaan satisfactory,” the minister said.

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Findings of NITI Aayog

The NITI Aayog assessed the implementation of Poshan Abhiyaan since its inception and came out with the following key findings:

• Poshan Abhiyaan has helped to bring a strong focus on improving nutrition outcomes during the first 1,000 days
• The initiative has enabled a nation-wide ‘Jan-Andolan’ catalysing nutrition related behaviour change at scale for positive impact on feeding and health care practices.
• It has demonstrated that the processes for inter-sectoral convergence are effectively operationalised through in place institutional mechanisms at multiple levels
• The campaign showed that technology can be leveraged for real-time monitoring of large-scale health and nutrition programmes
• It has supported the resilience of health and nutrition systems during covid-19 pandemic.