The event featured a range of activities focusing on dietary practices, health, and improving nutrition through various initiatives
Organised by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, the recent Poshan Pakhwada 2024 featured a variety of mass sensitisation and community activities. These included health camps, awareness sessions, cooking demonstrations, and interactive workshops. The themes of these activities focused on Poshan Bhi Padhai Bhi, dietary practices, and the health of pregnant women.
The Ministry, in a statement, highlighted the flexibility of Poshan Pakhwada 2024. In addition to the main themes, States and partner Ministries and Departments were encouraged to organise additional sensitisation activities around other important areas. These included improving nutrition through Mission LiFE, adopting Sustainable Food Systems by promoting Millet and Poshan Vatikas at Anganwadi Centres, managing Diarrhea and organising Swasth BalakSpardha. This flexibility empowered participants to contribute in areas that resonate with their interests and expertise, thereby making their involvement more meaningful.
In the last Poshan Pakhwada held from March to April 2023, more than four crore sensitisation activities were reported. These activities included awareness campaigns in schools, health check-ups in communities, distribution of nutritional supplements, and training sessions for mothers. They focused on themes of promotion and popularisation of Millets for nutritional wellbeing, celebration of Swasth BalakSpardha, and popularising Saksham Anganwadis.
The Ministry added that one of the key objectives of Saksham Anganwadi and Mission Poshan 2.0 is to achieve nutrition-linked behavioural change at individual and community levels through Jan Bhagidari. To inculcate healthy eating habits and mass sensitisation, Jan Andolans have been celebrated annually in the form of Poshan Pakhwada and Poshan Maah since the launch of POSHAN Abhiyaan in 2018.