Poshan Pakhwada To Focus On Nutrition And Health

New Delhi: The Poshan Pakhwada – 2024 will start on Saturday (March 8) and run till March 23 with an aim to promote activities focused on nutrition, health and early childhood care. According to a statement by the Union Women and Child Development Ministry, this year’s Poshan Pakhwada will revolve around three main themes — “Poshan Bhi Padhai Bhi”, “Tribal, Traditional, Regional & Local Dietary Practices” and “Health of Pregnant Women & Infant and Young Child Feeding Practices”.

“Poshan Bhi Padhai Bhi” emphasises the importance of early childhood care and education for better overall development while “Tribal, Traditional, Regional & Local Dietary Practices” look into the significance of various dietary traditions in ensuring adequate nutrition.

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“Health of Pregnant Women & Infant and Young Child Feeding Practices” focus on the well-being of expectant mothers and promoting proper feeding practices for infants and young children.

The statement said,

In addition, states, Union Territories and partner ministries/departments will conduct sensitisation activities covering other vital areas such as improving nutrition through Mission LiFE, promoting sustainable food systems by advocating for millets and encouraging the adoption of healthy lifestyles through Ayush practices.

The Ministry said,

The Poshan Pakhwada initiative has gained momentum since its inception with more than four crore sensitisation activities reported during the last edition in March-April 2023.

Since the launch of POSHAN Abhiyaan in 2018, Poshan Pakhwada and Poshan Maah have become annual fixtures, aimed at fostering nutrition-linked behavioral changes at both individual and community levels.

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(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

NDTV – Dettol have been working towards a clean and healthy India since 2014 via the Banega Swachh India initiative, which in its Season 10 is helmed by Campaign Ambassador Ayushmann Khurrana. The campaign aims to highlight the inter-dependency of humans and the environment, and of humans on one another with the focus on One Health, One Planet, One Future – Leaving No One Behind. It stresses on the need to take care of, and consider, everyone’s health in India – especially vulnerable communities – the LGBTQ population, indigenous people, India’s different tribes, ethnic and linguistic minorities, people with disabilities, migrants, geographically remote populations, gender and sexual minorities. In a world post COVID-19 pandemic, the need for WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) is reaffirmed as handwashing is one of the ways to prevent Coronavirus infection and other diseases. The campaign will continue to raise awareness on the same along with focussing on the importance of nutrition and healthcare for women and children, fight malnutrition, mental well-being, self-care, science and health, adolescent health & gender awareness. Along with the health of people, the campaign has realised the need to also take care of the health of the eco-system. Our environment is fragile due to human activity, which is not only over-exploiting available resources, but also generating immense pollution as a result of using and extracting those resources. The imbalance has also led to immense biodiversity loss that has caused one of the biggest threats to human survival – climate change. It has now been described as a “code red for humanity.” The campaign will continue to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and sanitation workers and menstrual hygiene. Banega Swasth India will also be taking forward the dream of Swasth Bharat, the campaign feels that only a Swachh or clean India where toilets are used and open defecation free (ODF) status achieved as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, can eradicate diseases like diahorrea and the country can become a Swasth or healthy India.