Govt to promote dietary diversity, protein-rich foods to fight malnutrition

NEW DELHI: Stepping up the fight against malnutrition, which remains a significant health challenge, govt will take the message of dietary diversity and importance of “protein rich foods” in a child’s diet — with special focus on children enrolled in around 14 lakh anganwadi centres — across the country, as part of its annual “Rashtriya Poshan Maah 2026”. The month-long nutrition campaign will be launched on Sept 9 from Varanasi.Women and child development (WCD) minister Annpurna Devi said this year’s theme for the campaign “Hamari Anganwadi Hamari Jimmedari” seeks to place anganwadi centres at the heart of community-led action for nutrition and early childhood development.One of the highlights of the Poshan Maah will be the ‘Protein-Rich Foods’ campaign. It is proposed to conduct awareness activities on protein-rich foods from plant and animal sources — pulses, legumes, nuts and seeds, milk and milk products, and eggs — demonstrating practical and affordable ways to add protein to daily diets.In a statement, WCD ministry said the theme seeking to involve community members in each anganwadi will drive the accelerated constitution and operationalisation of anganwadi management committees to promote community oversight of nutrition services, as per guidelines issued in June.

This “all-women committee” will have seven members — supervisor associated with the anganwadi as its chairperson, an anganwadi worker as convener, an Asha worker, two mothers of enrolled children, a woman from a self-help group (SHG), NGO or civil society organisation, and a govt school teacher.The ministry highlighted that Supplementary Nutrition Programme (SNP) guidelines for the first time, define hot cooked meals and mandate SNP menu boards in anganwadis. The guidelines also recommend drastically reducing the use of added sugars and salt in supplementary nutrition.