ITANAGAR, 21 Mar: The 4th Poshan Pakhwada (nutrition fortnight) was launched across the state on Monday under the Poshan Abhiyan.
Identification and celebration of healthy children, awareness programmes on gender sensitive water management, prevention and management of anaemia, and promotion of traditional food for healthy mother and child are among the many activities planned to mark the 15-day event.
The 21 March to 4 April pakhwada is being celebrated across the state as a ‘jan andolan’ (mass movement).
The WCD minister’s adviser Dasanglu Pul, who launched the Nutrition Fortnight from the crèche centre in the state civil secretariat here, also inaugurated the ‘identification and celebration of healthy children using growth monitoring devices’.
All the children from the crèche centre were measured using the growth monitoring devices provided by the women & child development (WCD) department to contribute to the database of height, weight and age estimation of children aged 0 to 6 years.
Pul also administered the ‘poshan pledge’ to the participants.
WCD Director TP Loyi highlighted the significance of celebrating the Rashtriya Poshan Pakhwada as “nutrition-centric jan andolan in the month of March every year across the country.”
Emphasising the importance of regular monitoring and identification of healthy children, Loyi advised the parents and guardians to take proper care of children identified as malnourished.
State nodal officer for the Poshan Abhiyan, DK Thungon said that this year the Poshan Pakhwada emphasises on two broad areas – identification and celebration of healthy children and integration of modern and traditional practices for healthy India, with the thematic areas around Poshan MITRA (Modern, IT-based, Traditional & Regional Activities).
For this, he said, an activity calendar has been prepared.
Poshan Pakhwada was also launched by all the 98 ICDS projects in the state.
