About 32 per cent of funds earmarked under Poshan Abhiyan till January 1 remain unspent by states and Union Territories, according to official data. Responding to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani gave data on state and Union Territory-wise statement of funds released, utilized and unspent under Poshan Abhiyaan.
It showed the total central fund released till January 1 was Rs 5,256.97 crore out of which Rs 3,572.17 crore has been spent by the states and Union Territories while Rs 1,684.79 crore is unspent balance available with them. Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha and Sikkim have no unspent fund while West Bengal has not utilised any fund earmarked for it.
Poshan Abhiyaan was launched on March 8, 2018, with the vision of a malnutrition-free India.
The aim is to reduce malnutrition in a phased manner and achieve improvement in the nutritional status of children from 0 to 6 years, adolescent girls, pregnant women and lactating mothers in a time-bound way.
Further, Mission Poshan 2.0, an integrated nutrition support programme that subsumes Supplementary Nutrition Programme and POSHAN Abhiyaan ahead, was announced in budget 2021-2022. It intends to strengthen nutritional content, delivery, outreach and outcomes with a focus on developing practices that nurture health, wellness and immunity to disease and malnutrition.
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