How Assam plans to implement programmes under Mission Poshan over next 5 years

Shri Jishnu Barua

Chief Secretary, Assam

Nutrition for children begins much before birth, in the womb. Evidence shows us that the first 1,000 days extending from pregnancy to a child's second birthday are critical in shaping the overall development of a child. Assam has shown progress on nutrition indicators over the past few years, however, unlike most other indicators of population, health and development, child undernutrition levels exhibit a slow trend of improvement, not sufficient for the state to achieve the targets under SDGs. In this context, Mission Poshan 2.0 is a welcome step for us. We propose to use the Missions as an opportunity to renew our commitment to the prevention and care of malnutrition amongst women, adolescents, and children.

As we understand more about the framework of Mission Poshan 2.0; we are already identifying existing state initiatives aligned to the overarching guidance under the Mission. During the last few years under Poshan Abhiyaan, and working convergently with multiple departments and partners, the state has designed and implemented initiatives on high-impact nutrition interventions which we will continue to strengthen by leveraging the improved provisions under Mission Poshan 2.0. A few examples of Assam's achievements include (i) continuity of services through COVID-adapted mechanisms; (ii) establishment of remote mechanisms for tracking coverage of essential nutrition services; (iii) convergent reviews and joint training for Social Welfare and Health Department teams on nutrition programmes; and (iv) investment on 'innovations' funds for interventions on Early Childhood Development (ECD); Community-based programme for children with Severe Acute Malnutrition (CMAM); promotion of Complementary Feeding; and Adolescent Nutrition.

As we all understand, malnutrition is a multi-dimensional problem. I believe the roll-out of Mission Poshan 2.0 will achieve its full purpose only when multi-sectoral actions involving both nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive sectors – like water and sanitation; girls' education; social protection; women empowerment – are undertaken. We, therefore, propose to involve diverse stakeholders including PRIs, Livelihood mission, academic institutes, legislative bodies, development partners, CBOs as well as the community itself. The overarching nutrition governance structure of Mission Poshan 2.0 will provide the much-needed framework for not just convergent planning, monitoring, and reviews; but also converging resources, skills, and knowledge available under different sectors.

The Mission is also coming at a juncture when states are gradually transitioning back to 'pre-COVID' ways of service delivery with AWCs and schools have re-opened. It would be helpful to review the long-term continuing impact of the pandemic on communities. In this context, I propose that as we move ahead with strengthened data systems and real-time monitoring, the state of Assam would strive to equally focus on building community awareness and demand for services. For this, we aim to revive the platform of monthly "Community-based events". In addition, we would continue efforts to further realize the potential of the 'Village Health Sanitation and Nutrition and Days' (VHSNDs) as a 'convergent' platform driven by the triple As AWWs, ASHAs and ANMs.

In all of our efforts, we would be conscious to focus on the most vulnerable groups and hard-to-reach populations, so that we can ensure last-mile service delivery. Through our supervisory cadre, we will further intensify our handholding support and supervision for service delivery in areas with multiple vulnerabilities including riverine areas, the tea gardens, and the districts under Bodoland Territorial Council. Assam being a flood-prone state, we will continue to build resilient service-delivery systems as we progress on our ongoing work on risk-informed nutrition programming.

While the issue of malnutrition is complex, we know what works to prevent and address malnutrition. We now need to come together and take these solutions to scale. Nutrition is also central to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda, and at least 12 of the 17 SDGs include indicators relevant to nutrition. I welcome the GoI's leadership and commitment to Mission Poshan 2.0 to deliver on strengthening the coverage, continuity, intensity and quality of high-impact women and child nutrition interventions resting on the four pillars of Governance, Convergence, Capacity building and Outreach. (PIB)