Poshan Utsav: Celebrating Nutrition
The Ministry of Women and Child Development organized the Poshan Utsav on 29th February 2024. The event was graced by the Hon’ble Union Minister for Women and Child Development and Minority Affairs, Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani and Mr. Bill Gates, Co-Chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). The event featured the release of 'Poshan Utsav Book' and announced the launch of the Cartoon Coalition.
The 'Poshan Utsav Book', conceptualised by the Ministry of Women and Child Development has been curated by the Deendayal Research Institute (DRI). The book seeks to revive ancient nutrition traditions, facilitating knowledge exchange and intergenerational learning. It also serves as a comprehensive repository for appreciation of the rich culinary heritage and nutritional diversity of the country.
The Cartoon Coalition is envisaged to support and contribute towards the cause of Poshan through collaboration with MWCD. This Coalition is born out of a collaboration between renowned cartoon entities in India to harness the power of popular cartoon characters to convey essential messages on nutrition in an entertaining and relatable manner for positive behaviour change among children.
Addressing the gathering, Bill Gates, Co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation remarked, "The Poshan Utsav book is a great example of incorporating local context and cultural practices to promote nutritional foods across India’s diverse communities." He further added, "When you improve the life of a woman, there’s a ripple effect: You improve her community and her country. In India, we’ve seen that this kind of progress can be lasting and can be achieved on a massive scale." In her keynote address, while expressing appreciation for the efforts made by BMGF in the nutrition and gender space, Hon’ble Minister of Women and Child Development and Minority Affairs, stated that when the Hon’ble Prime Minister announced the Poshan Abhiyaan in 2018, it marked a historic moment for the country. For the first time, 18 ministries across the Government of India came together under the national flagship program called Poshan Abhiyaan. She emphasized that every anganwadi is digitally enabled so that Service delivery to the last mile can be tracked. She also stated that handheld devices now are available to Anganwadi Centres across the country. Every month Anganwadi didis measure 75 million children under the age of 6 years as per WHO standards.
Further, she mentioned that after the operationalisation of Poshan Tracker, the numbers for SAM & MAM children have shown significant decline as compared to the data reported under NFHS-5 survey. She highlighted that the cartoon coalition launched was aimed as a significant step towards bringing about behavioural change in children for healthy lifestyle.
The presence of the popular cartoon characters like Chacha Chaudhary, Suppandi, Shambhu, Elmo brought the coalition to life and added special appeal to the occasion. The program was a milestone event in the efforts to combat malnutrition and foster healthier lifestyles among children. It was a significant step towards the goal of Suposhit Bharat.
