Poshan Vatika for alleviation of malnutrition

Poshan Vatika for alleviation of malnutrition

Part of: GS Prelims and GS -II – Health

In News: The Ministry of Ayush and Ministry of Women and Child Development jointly organised a webinar on the importance of ‘Poshan Vatika’ (Nutri Garden) for alleviation of malnutrition.

About POSHAN Vatika

• Rural areas have ample space and establishing a Nutri garden/Poshan Vatikas is far simpler as farm families are involved in agriculture.
• Plantation of nutritional and herbal trees under PoshanVatika would reduce external dependency and make communities Atmanirbhar for their nutritional security.
• The Ministry of Ayush will collaborate with 3,000 Aanganwadis to take forward the campaign of establishing Nutri Garden and will also decide the nutritional and herbal trees that will be planted there.
• Plants such as Moringa, Guava, Banana and Tulsi are great candidates to plant in a Poshan Vatika as they deal with problems of malnutrition in women and children.

Significance of Poshan Vatika

• Poshan Abhiyaan aims to encourage convergence among various Ministries to tackle the problem of malnutrition. Aanganwaadi covers 50% of the people who are poor and don’t get proper nutrition while Poshan Abhiyaan covers the other 50% who might not be poor but need information about proper nutrition
• Can play an important role in enhancing dietary diversity by providing micronutrients through constant supply of fruits and vegetables sufficient to meet the family’s requirements, which can prove to be a sustainable model for providing food security and diversity to combat malnutrition at the household or community level.

The Ministry of Ayush: 

• AYUSH is the acronym for Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Sowa, Rigpa and Homeopathy, (Sowa and Rigpa added later).
• The Ministry aims to develop education and research in the above fields. 

• Originally formed in 1995 as Department of Indian Medicines and Homeopathy (IM&H), it was renamed to AYUSH in 2003 and given a separate ministry in Nov’ 2014.

POSHAN Abhiyaan: POSHAN (Prime Minister’s Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nutrition) Abhiyaan

• It is Government of India’s flagship programme to improve nutritional outcomes for children, adolescent girls, pregnant women and lactating mothers. 

• Ministry: Ministry of Women & Child Development 

• Mission Poshan 2.0 (Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0) has been announced in the Budget 2021-2022 as an integrated nutrition support programme. 

• Objectives: To strengthen nutritional content, delivery, outreach and outcomes, with a focus on developing practices that nurture health, wellness and immunity to disease and malnutrition. 
• Target: Reducing stunting, under-nutrition, anemia (among young children, women and adolescent girls) and low birth weight by 2%, 2%, 3% and 2% per annum respectively.
• Poshan Gyan: A national digital repository on health and nutrition

Must Read:Important Portals in the Ayush sector

News Source: PIB