Lok Sabha Question No. 353 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-07-21
Subject: POSHAN Scheme
Ministry: WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: Janardan Singh Sigriwal

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF WOMEN & CHILD DEVELOPMENT

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 353

TO BE ANSWERED ON 21.07.2023

## POSHAN SCHEME

353.   SHRI JANARDAN SINGH SIGRIWAL:

Will the Minister of WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT be pleased to state:

- (a) the  details  of  various  schemes  being  implemented  by  the  Government  under POSHAN Abhiyan to improve the health condition of poor women; and
- (b) the other measures being taken by the Government for menstrual hygiene among women in the country?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT (SHRIMATI SMRITI ZUBIN IRANI)

(a)        POSHAN  Abhiyaan  was  launched  on  8 th  March  2018  with  an  aim  to  achieve improvement  in  nutritional  status  of  Adolescent  Girls,  Pregnant  Women  and  Lactating Mothers in a time bound manner by adopting a synergised and result oriented approach. Recently,  the  efforts  under  the  Supplementary  Nutrition  Programme  of  Anganwadi Services  and  POSHAN  Abhiyaan  have  been  aligned  under  'Saksham  Anganwadi  and POSHAN 2.0' (Mission Poshan 2.0), which is an integrated nutrition support programme. It seeks to address the challenges of malnutrition in children, adolescent girls, pregnant women and lactating mothers through a strategic shift in nutrition content and delivery and by  creation  of  a  convergent  ecosystem  to  develop  and  promote  practices  that  nurture health,  wellness  and  immunity.  Poshan  2.0  focuses  on  Maternal  Nutrition,  Infant  and Young  Child  Feeding  Norms,  Treatment  of  MAM/SAM  and Wellness  through  AYUSH. Time-tested  traditional  wisdom  in  community  nutritional  practices  is  leveraged  under Poshan 2.0 to focus on prevention of diseases and promotion of wellness through Yoga, cultivation  of  medicinal  herbs  in  Poshan  Vatikas,  and  use  of  AYUSH  formulations  to address conditions like anemia. Under Mission Poshan 2.0,  fortified rice is being allocated for Supplementary Nutrition and focus is on millets and locally available nutritious food for ensuring adequate nutrition. Region-wise diet charts have been developed for pregnant women, viz., North, North-East, West, South, East and Central.

Further, Scheme for Adolescent Girls under Mission Poshan 2.0 has been revised to  focus  on  Adolescent  Girls  in  the  age  bracket  14-18  years  of  age  in  North  East  and Aspirational Districts to adopt a lifecycle approach to malnutrition.

Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMVVY) provides universal coverage to pregnant and lactating mothers for direct cash benefits of Rs. 5000 for one child with an aim  to  promote  heath  seeking  behaviour  and  for  partial  compensation  of  wage  losses during the period of pregnancy and motherhood. Under Mission Shakti, the Government has  decided  to  extend  the  benefit  for  2 nd   child  if  it  is  girl  child  with  a  higher  financial assistance of Rs. 6000.

As per information shared by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, under National Health Mission (NHM), followings Schemes are implemented to provide maternal health services to all pregnant women including poor women throughout the country:

-  Surakshit Matritva Aashwasan (SUMAN) provides assured, dignified, respectful and quality healthcare at no cost and zero tolerance for denial of services for every woman and newborn visiting public health facilities to end all preventable maternal and newborn deaths.
-  Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) , a demand promotion and conditional cash transfer scheme for promoting institutional delivery.
-  Under Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakram (JSSK), every  pregnant  woman is entitled  to  free  delivery,  including  caesarean  section,  in  public  health  institutions along  with  the  provision  of  free  transport,  diagnostics,  medicines,  blood,  other consumables & diet.
-  Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan (PMSMA) provides pregnant women a fixed day, free of cost assured and quality antenatal check up by a Specialist/Medical Officer on the 9 th  day of every month.
-  LaQshya improves  the  quality  of  care  in  labour  room  and  maternity  operation theatres to ensure that pregnant women receive respectful and quality care during delivery and immediate post-partum.
-  Functionalization of First Referral Units (FRUs) by ensuring manpower, blood storage units, referral linkages to improve the access to quality of care for pregnant women
-  Setting up of Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Wings at high caseload facilities to improve the quality of care provided to mothers and children.
-  Obstetric HDU & ICU in high caseload tertiary care facilities across the country to handle complicated pregnancy.
-  Monthly  Village  Health,  Sanitation  and  Nutrition  Day  (VHSND), an  outreach activity  at  Anganwadi  centers  for  provision  of  maternal  and  child  care  including nutrition in convergence with the ICDS.
-  Birth Waiting Homes (BWH) are established in remote and tribal areas to promote institutional delivery and improve access to healthcare facilities.
-  Outreach camps are provisioned for improving the reach of healthcare services especially in tribal and hard to reach areas. This platform is used to increase the awareness for the Maternal & Child health services, community mobilization as well as to track high risk pregnancies.
-  Performance  based  incentives  to  ANMs  (SBAs): ANMs  trained  in  SBA  are incentivized for attending home deliveries in pre-identified and notified villages in remote and inaccessible areas where it is difficult to bring a woman to the institution for delivery on account of geographical/climatic exigencies.
-  Reproductive  and  child  health  (RCH)  portal is  a  name-based  web-enabled tracking  system  for  pregnant  women  and  newborn  so  as  to  ensure  seamless provision  of  regular  and  complete  services  to  them  including  antenatal  care, institutional delivery and post-natal care.
-  MCP Card and Safe Motherhood Booklet are distributed to the pregnant women for educating them on diet, rest, danger signs of pregnancy, benefit schemes and institutional deliveries.

(b)      As per information shared by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the Scheme for Promotion of Menstrual Hygiene among adolescent girls in the age group of 10-19 years is implemented under the Rashtriya Kishor Swasthya Karyakram (RKSK) by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare since 2011. The major objectives of the scheme are:

- i. To increase awareness among adolescent girls on Menstrual Hygiene.
- ii. To increase access to and use of high quality sanitary napkins by adolescent girls.
- iii. To ensure safe disposal of sanitary napkins in an environmentally friendly manner.

Since 2015-16, the Menstrual Hygiene Scheme is supported by National Health Mission  through  State  Programme  Implementation  Plan  (PIP)  route  based  on  the proposals  received  from  the  States.  Under  the  overall  budget  provided  for  IEC/BCC activities for Rashtriya Kishor Swasthya Karyakram (RKSK) Mid Media/ Mass Media and IPC activities are carried out by the States/ UTs targeted at adolescent girls, gatekeepers, influencers and community at large. Apart from the above, the Teachers, ANMs, ASHA worker and AWWs are oriented appropriately for the scheme with the budget provided for the  same  under  RKSK.  In  FY  2022-23,  approximately  45  lakh  adolescent  girls  were provided sanitary napkin packs every month (HMIS data). The percentage of women age 15-24 years using a hygienic method of protection during their menstrual period has also increased from 58% in National Family Health Survey-4 (NFHS-4) (2015-16) to 78% in NFHS-5 (2019-21). Similarly, the usage of Sanitary Napkins has also increased from 42% to 64%.

Further, under Jan Andolan undertaken by this Ministry for health and nutrition, large scale and continuous behaviour change communication have been carried out through annual Poshan Maah and Poshan Pakhwada. In Poshan Maah 2022, Mahila aur Swasthya was a key theme around which close to 10 crore activities were conducted on awareness and sensitisation around women's health, anemia prevention, appropriate breast feeding practices etc. Close to 7.18 lakh awareness camps on menstrual hygiene were organized across the country.

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