Revisiting POSHAN Abhiyan with special Emphasis on Stunting

The Prime Minister’s Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nourishment (POSHAN) Abhiyaan or National Nutrition Mission was launched by the Government of India on March 8, 2018 in the Jhunjhunia District of Rajasthan. POSHAN Abhiyan is India’s flagship programme to improve nutritional outcomes by convergence, targeted approach and use of appropriate technology. To strengthen nutritional content, delivery, outreach, and outcomes, Government has merged the Supplementary Nutrition Programme and Poshan Abhiyan to launch Mission POSHAN 2.0. As India formulates POSHAN Abhiyaan 2.0, the use of the stunting metric to measure the effect of current interventions needs to be reconsidered. It has been emphasized that the stunting metric, due to its sensitivity to maternal height, cannot accurately assess the extent of the current under-nutrition burden. Among the target indicators identified in POSHAN Abhiyaan, stunting is least indicative of current nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive conditions.

Addressing obesity among females: The need for focused strategies in National programmes

Prevalence of obesity is increasing in both developed and developing countries. India is also facing a double burden of malnutrition as already existing malnutrition and increasing prevalence of obesity. Evidence suggests that prevalence of obesity is more in women as compared to men due to consumption of pre-packed energy-dense food, hormonal change during pregnancy and menopause. Obese females are more prone to life style diseases and abdominal obesity increases the risk of metabolic syndrome and is strongly related to poly cystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS). Obesity’s impact can be seen in the life cycle of women. It not only impacts the physical health of women but on her psychological, social, reproductive and social well-being which hampers her overall health. To address obesity various programmes and interventions have already been formulated by the Government of India. Need is to address the issue of obesity at every stage of women’s life cycle and this can be done by adding some interventions in already existing programmes.