Topic – Issues relating to poverty and hunger.
2) There are certain fundamental issues which need to be fixed iso that India’s Poshan Abhiyan can be successfully implemented. Discuss.(250 words)
Directive word
Discuss- this is an all-encompassing directive which mandates us to write in detail about the key demand of the question. we also have to discuss about the related and important aspects of the question in order to bring out a complete picture of the issue in hand.
Key demand of the question.
The question wants us to write in detail about the issues faced by Poshan Abhiyan which need rectification in order to make the programme successful and achieve its stated objectives.
Structure of the answer
Introduction– write a few introductory lines about the Poshan Abhiyan. E.g It aims to drastically reduce the prevailing high incidence of malnutrition, stunted growth and anaemia. The intention is to do this through convergence, mass movements and leveraging technology.
Body-
Discuss in points the issues associated with programme. E.g many of the AWCs lack basic amenities and face infrastructure problems. Around 24% of them lacked their own building and operated from small rented premises, and around 14% lacked pucca buildings; To overcome the challenges of the tedious and irregular system of manually maintaining daily registers and monitor growth efficiently, information and communications technology-enabled real time monitoring (ICT-RTM) has been rolled out in POSHAN Abhiyaan districts. This helped identify 12,000 severely malnourished children in 46 districts of six states; However, this could be rendered ineffective due to the limited capacities of AWWs to handle smartphones owing to their lack of technological literacy. This is compounded by technical issues like slow servers and data deletion problems, resulting in irregular and improper recording of growth data of children; AWWs are the fulcrum of POSHAN Abhiyaan and render vital services to mothers and children in villages. Despite their indispensability, nearly 40% of AWWs had to use their personal money to run the AWCs, 35% of them complained of delayed payments (Progress of Children Under Six Report, 2016), and administrative duties like organizing functions, and conducting exams and surveys distracted them from their core health and nutrition responsibilities. Thus, overburdened with work, undervalued and underpaid, AWWs have become demotivated and demoralized etc.
Conclusion– based on your discussion, form a fair and a balanced conclusion on the given issue.
