Gurugram: Feeding India (FI) in collaboration with Gurugram District Administration, has launched its Anganwadi Nutrition Program (“Program”) across 200+ Anganwadi centers in Sohna Block. The initiative is set to provide millet-based nutritional support to more than 6000+ children in the age group of 3-6 years. This strategic collaboration aims to implement the system strengthening program under the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), focusing on the strengthening of Anganwadi centers in Sohna Block.

 As part of the Program, FI has incorporated millets as a key component of its nutritional supplements, inspired by the International Year of Millets championed by the Hon’ble Prime Minister. Along with this, the Program also entails capacity building of the Anganwadi workers, technology-based monitoring and evaluation solutions and reward and recognition to motivate the Anganwadi workers. With these combined efforts, FI aims to work towards building a malnutrition-free Gurugram.

 FI’s Large-Scale System Strengthening Program at a glance:

The Program’s core objectives are improving the overall health status of children, with an emphasis on SAM (severely acute malnourishment) and MAM (moderately acute malnourishment) children by providing energy-dense and high-protein food support.

Provision of supplementary millet-based supplement to children registered in these 200+ Anganwadi centers and its daily monitoring is done with the support of Anganwadi workers, Block Associate (appointed by Feeding India) and with support from District Administration.

The five important pillars for achieving the goal are initial assessment of the situation based on Poshan Tracker, capacity building of the Anganwadi workers, provision of nutrition products, robust tech based monitoring and evaluation system and rewards and recognition of the Anganwadi workers.

To evaluate the Program’s progress and reward Anganwadi workers, the key performance indicators include improved measurement efficiency, increased attendance of children in the Anganwadi centers and improvement in the home visits completed by the Anganwadi workers.

 Shri Hitesh Kumar Meena, Additional Deputy Commissioner, Gurugram said, Over the past five years, the Gurugram District Administration has made commendable strides in improving Anganwadi centers and aligning them with the New Education Policy 2020 and the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Policy 2013. A total of 104 Anganwadi centers in Gurugram have been selected to be transformed to play schools with upgraded infrastructure. We believe that civil societies and public participation plays a critical role in the fight against malnutrition. We are delighted to be partnering with Feeding India on this project which is holistically targeted to eradicate malnutrition in Gurugram.

Vishal Kumar, CEO and President, Feeding India said, “Feeding India’s system-strengthening interventions in Uttar Pradesh have yielded significant positive outcomes, including improved attendance in Anganwadi centers, growth monitoring, and data quality of Poshan Tracker. Building on that, we are excited to collaborate with the District Administration, Gurugram and look forward to supporting the Government’s efforts to build a kuposhan mukt bharat. The Program’s primary focus is addressing the critical challenge of malnutrition in the Anganwadi centers. We hope to make a tangible and scalable impact on the nutritional outcomes of children by providing millet-based supplementary food and simultaneously monitoring and analyzing changes in the BMI of children.”