National Nutrition Month being celebrated across country to mark the fight against malnutrition.

The National Nutrition Month is being celebrated across the country to mark the fight against malnutrition. During this month, various programmes have been organized by the Women and Child Development Ministry to spread broad awareness on the issues related to malnutrition like stunting, under-nutrition, anaemia and low birth weight in children.

The Nutrition Month will also focus on adolescent girls, pregnant women and lactating mothers to eliminate the deficiencies prevailing in the Health sector.

The decision to celebrate September as the National Nutrition Month every year was taken during the second meeting of National Council on India's Nutrition Challenges under the Poshan Abhiyaan held in July this year. With the aim to bring down stunting of children in the age group of 0-6 years from 38 per cent to 25 per cent by 2022, POSHAN Abhiyaan- the National Nutrition Mission was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 8th this year in Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan.

The Ministry is working on eight focused themes like optimal breast feeding, growth monitoring, hygiene and sanitation, food fortification and girls' education, diet and marriage at right age etc. to achieve improvement in nutritional status of children, adolescent girls, pregnant women and lactating mothers.

The ministry is trying to reach about 11 crore women and children during this month through various grass-root activities, with the convergence of different ministries.(Source: News on Air)