Workshop on Poshan Abhiyaan & Growth Assessment

Early childhood nutrition : In the first two years of life, breastfeeding saves lives, shields children from disease, boosts brain development and guarantees children a safe and nutritious food source. UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO) recommend that infants begin breastfeeding within one hour of birth, be exclusively breastfed for the first six months, and continue breastfeeding until 2 years of age or beyond. 6 months and beyond breast feeding is complemented by addition of nutritionally rich and balanced food. The working rule is that by age 2 the child should be able to share a family meal with all its components.

Integrated Child Development Services is a government programme in India which provides nutritional meals, preschool education, primary healthcare, immunization, health check-up and referral services to children under 6 years of age and their mothers. This is the worlds largest early childhood programme & has the distinction of being inaugurated on Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday October 2nd. The Universalization of the ICDS programme has been welcomed across the country as a positive investment in early childhood development.

Partnership with Government: There is already malnutrition and nutritional insecurity among the children, especially vulnerable children. The COVID19 pandemic has further compounded this. Closure of schools resulted in disruption of noon meals to children and supply of nutrients to Anganvaadi. children This has resulted in further worsening of the nutritional status of children especially children in eth early childhood age. To overcome this and to ensure nutritional security in children, a working partnership between Government especially ICDS and volunteer agencies like Shanti Ashram & the International Center for Child & Public Health is helpful. By joining together our expertise and resources can be pooled and put into effective use in working for children’s nutritional security. In a discussion meeting with the District Collector, Shri.Krant Kumar it was emphasised that ICDS and Shanti Ashram can work together for a better output in Perur & Madukkarai blocks.

For the 6th year at International Centre for Child and Public Health: Giving every child a healthy start to life is a vision and keeping this central to our work, every action at ICPH & Shanti Ashram is around children. This joint effort is built on this vision.

Goals of the Workshop
• To understand the efforts of ICDS in creating nutritional security through the Poshan Abhyan
• To explore a partnership between ICDS & Shanti Ashram with focus on studying baselines amongst
children in early childhood & ensuring their nutrition security.

Programme