The Ministry of Women & Child Development is organising a series of webinars during the Third Poshan Maah being celebrated in September 2020. The first webinar on Best Practices and Success Stories from POSHAN Abhiyaan was scheduled on September 7. The second webinar was held on September 8 on the topic of Nutrient Requirement for Children and Mothers during the first 1000 days. Smriti Zubin Irani presided over the webinars.
Debasree Chaudhuri, Union Minister of State for Women & Child Development, Ram Mohan Mishra, Secretary, Women & Child Development representatives of Partner Ministries and State Governments, representatives from International Organisations and Development Partners, PRI members, ICDS functionaries, State WCD representatives, Domain experts, Nutritionists, Ministry officers and others were also present.
Addressing the webinars, Smriti Zubin Irani appreciated the efforts of the coordinating ministries and appealed to all to promote Jan Bhagidari is making all-out efforts to make the POSHAN Abhiyaan a success. She said that the Ministry of Women & Child Development plans to compile best practices and success stories into an E-book.
The thematic agenda for the Webinar on Best Practices and Success Stories of POSHAN Abhiyaan included discussion on the need for a renewed focus on nutrition during COVID-19, need for innovation and agro-diversity in food, sharing of best practices and success stories in establishing Nutri-gardens in Lakshadweep Anganwadi Centres, online tracking and adoption of Severely Acute Malnourished (SAM) Children in Gujarat, revamping supplementary nutrition preparation & distribution and inclusion of Millets in Odisha, adoption of SAM children by Government officials in Uttarakhand, and identification drive for SAM children in the UTs of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, which have predominantly tribal population and high prevalence of malnutrition amongst the children.
The agenda of the webinar on September 8 had guest lectures by two eminent medical professionals. The first lecture titled “Apt Nurturing: The First 1000 Days are Crucial” was delivered by Dr H.P.S. Sachdev, Professor of Pediatrics and Clinical Epidemiology, in which he stressed that nutrition from the time of conception to two years of age is crucial for an excellent start to a productive life. In the second lecture titled “Nutrient requirements for Children and Mothers: first 1000 days”, Professor AV Kurpad, former Head of Physiology, St John’s Medical College, advised that regular, affordable, diverse home-cooked diets are adequate to meet nutritional requirements and the diet should be carefully designed to avoid the risk of both under- or over-feeding. He stressed on exclusive breastfeeding for the first 180 days of a newborn’s life.
(Source: PIB)
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