- Why in news
- The 9th Rashtriya Poshan Maah will be launched on 9 September 2026 at Varanasi, with the theme "Hamari Anganwadi Hamari Jimmedari" (PIB, 8 Sept 2026).
- What it is
- Mission Poshan 2.0 is India's unified National Nutrition Mission, run by the Ministry of Women and Child Development. It merges POSHAN Abhiyaan, Anganwadi Services/ICDS and the Scheme for Adolescent Girls into one framework. Rashtriya Poshan Maah is its annual September awareness campaign.
- Formation of Poshan 2.0
- Mission Poshan 2.0 was integrated in Union Budget 2021-22 under the Ministry of Women and Child Development.
- Schemes merged
- It combines POSHAN Abhiyaan, Anganwadi Services/ICDS and the Scheme for Adolescent Girls.
- POSHAN Abhiyaan launch
- POSHAN Abhiyaan began in March 2018 as a multi-ministerial convergence mission.
- Poshan Tracker
- Launched 1 March 2021, it is the digital tool for near real-time monitoring of Anganwadi services.
- Beneficiaries
- Supplementary Nutrition covers children (6 months to 6 years), pregnant women, lactating mothers and adolescent girls (14-18 years).
- Forms of delivery
- Supplementary Nutrition is given as Take-Home Ration, Morning Snacks and Hot Cooked Meal.
- Legal basis of norms
- Nutrition norms come from Schedule-II of the National Food Security Act, 2013, revised in January 2023.
- SAM children
- Severely Acute Malnourished children aged 6 months to 5 years get additional nutrition as THR.
- Dietary Guidelines
- The Dietary Guidelines for Indians, 2024 were released by ICMR-NIN; the guidelines urge less edible oil, salt and sugar.
- Awareness events
- Poshan Maah is in September and Poshan Pakhwada in March-April; Anganwadi workers must hold two Community Based Events a month.
- Six services
- Supplementary Nutrition, Pre-school Non-formal Education, Nutrition & Health Education, Immunization, Health Check-up and Referral Services are given through Anganwadi Centres.
- Health services via NHM
- Three of the six services (immunization, health check-up, referral) are health-related and delivered through the National Health Mission and public health infrastructure.
- Saksham Anganwadis
- Two lakh AWCs in government buildings were sanctioned as Saksham Anganwadis in the 15th Finance Commission cycle.
- Worker incentive
- Anganwadi Workers get ₹500 and Helpers ₹250 a month for growth monitoring of at least 80% of children aged 0-6 and at least 60% of home visits.
- Adolescent girls coverage
- Girls aged 14-18 are covered only in Aspirational Districts and all districts of the North Eastern Region.
- Honorarium
- From 1 October 2018, the honorarium of Anganwadi Workers rose from Rs 3,000 to Rs 4,500 a month. For Helpers it rose from Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,250.
- Pankhudi Portal
- A portal to enable organisations, individuals and corporates to collaborate on activities under Poshan 2.0, Mission Shakti and Mission Vatsalya.
Don’t confuse with Poshan Maah vs Poshan Pakhwada: Poshan Maah is held in September for a month; Poshan Pakhwada is a two-week campaign held in April.
Don’t confuse with POSHAN Abhiyaan vs Mission Poshan 2.0: POSHAN Abhiyaan (2018) is one component; Poshan 2.0 (2021-22) is the wider mission that includes it along with ICDS and the adolescent girls scheme.
Don’t confuse with Supplementary Nutrition vs Mid-Day Meal (PM POSHAN): Supplementary Nutrition is for under-6 children, mothers and adolescent girls via Anganwadis; PM POSHAN serves school children.
Don’t confuse with Poshan Vatika vs Saksham Anganwadi: Poshan Vatika is a nutrition garden at an AWC; Saksham Anganwadi is an upgraded AWC with LED screens, water filters, ECCE material and a Poshan Vatika.
Don’t confuse with Poshan 2.0 vs POSHAN Abhiyaan: POSHAN Abhiyaan was the earlier 2018 nutrition mission; Poshan 2.0 merged it with Anganwadi Services and the adolescent girls scheme.
Don’t confuse with Poshan Tracker vs Pankhudi Portal: Poshan Tracker is a monitoring app for service delivery and beneficiaries. Pankhudi is a collaboration portal for partners and donors across three Missions.
Schemes: 52 Prelims questions since 2013, 10 in Prelims 2026 alone. They test features, the period and who funds it. In Mains, 33 news-triggered questions, mostly GS3.
Why it matters
- Targets malnutrition in the first 1,000 days, which shapes child growth and learning.
- Treats nutrition as a Jan Andolan, using community mobilisation along with delivery of services.
- Revised norms move nutrition policy from calories to diet diversity and micronutrients, addressing hidden hunger.
- Local menus improve acceptance and support millets and indigenous foods.
- Combines nutrition, early education and health in one platform, targeting stunting and wasting.
- Poshan Tracker gives near real time data for monitoring and course correction.
- Aadhaar-based tracking and face matching help prevent leakage and ghost entries in nutrition benefits.
- Linking Anganwadis with NHM joins nutrition, early education and health in one delivery point.
Problems
- Quality, freshness and hygiene of hot cooked meals vary across centres.
- Behaviour change and community accountability are hard to sustain beyond annual campaigns.
- Quality, hygiene and uniform delivery of THR and hot meals across States is hard to monitor.
- Behaviour change on diets needs sustained counselling by overworked Anganwadi workers.
- Services depend on health-sector delivery through NHM, which needs coordination.
- Data quality and workload on Anganwadi workers, and gaps in infrastructure at AWCs.
- Biometric and face authentication can exclude beneficiaries who cannot visit the centre; the nominee module only partly addresses this.
- Anganwadi workers remain honorary, with pay varying across States.
Way forward
- Make Anganwadi Management Committees and menu boards work for social audit and transparency.
- Use Poshan Tracker data and FSSAI quality testing to fix gaps in service delivery.
- Use Poshan Tracker data and social audits to check quality and leakages.
- Involve local experts and self-help groups to build State-specific recipes and train workers.
- Strengthen convergence with health, education and local bodies.
- Train and fairly pay workers, and verify Tracker data through audits.
- Keep alternatives for beneficiaries who fail authentication and audit exclusion.
- Improve worker pay and training, and use the Pankhudi Portal with safeguards.
Put in your answer
Anganwadi network scale: As of 31 July 2026, about 13.99 lakh Anganwadi Centres and 13.30 lakh workers reach nearly 8.94 crore beneficiaries.
Jan Andolan reach: More than 150 crore Jan Andolan activities have been held since 2018 through 16 Jan Andolans.
Community Based Events: About 10.5 crore CBEs were reported on Poshan Tracker from April 2022 to June 2026.
Saksham Anganwadi target: Two lakh AWCs in government buildings sanctioned for upgrade in the 15th FC cycle.
Dietary diversity via Poshan Vatika: Nutrition gardens address the dietary diversity gap and micronutrient deficiencies with local produce.
Poshan Tracker Aadhaar verification: 99.88% of registered beneficiaries on the Poshan Tracker dashboard are Aadhaar verified.
Universal umbrella scheme: The Mission has no entry barriers; any beneficiary willing to undergo eKYC with face recognition is entitled to benefits.
- 2013Mains GS2 · Q9Critically examine twin objectives, mandates and success of Mid Day Meal scheme.
- 2026Mains GS2 · Q7Discuss malnutrition as equity, human development, governance challenge.
- 2021Mains GS3 · Q13NFSA 2013's salient features and effect on hunger, malnutrition.
- 2024Mains GS2 · Q7Break poverty-malnutrition cycle affecting human capital formation; suggest steps.
- 2021Mains GS2 · Q8Can microfinancing women SHGs break the gender, poverty and malnutrition cycle?
- 2024Prelims Q99Statements on PMSMA antenatal care package and private provider volunteering.
- 2017Prelims Q23Objectives of National Nutrition Mission, predecessor of POSHAN Abhiyaan.
- 2016Prelims Q48Features of Initiative for Nutritional Security through Intensive Millets Promotion.
UPSC’s own questions that come close to this issue, from our Prelims and Mains banks.
Prelims practice · Statements
Ours, not from a UPSC paper
Consider the following statements:
- 1.Under Mission Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0, Supplementary Nutrition is provided to adolescent girls aged 14-18 years.
- 2.The nutrition norms followed for Supplementary Nutrition are contained in Schedule-II of the National Food Security Act, 2013.
- 3.The Dietary Guidelines for Indians, 2024 were released by NITI Aayog.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
True or false?
1 of 6
Statements the way Prelims prints them. Say first, then see the fact.
1.Under Mission Poshan 2.0, Supplementary Nutrition is provided to adolescent girls aged 14-18 years.
True. Adolescent girls aged 14-18 years are covered.
2.The nutrition norms followed for Supplementary Nutrition are contained in Schedule-II of the National Food Security Act, 2013.
True. Schedule-II of the NFSA, 2013, revised in January 2023.
3.The revised nutrition norms are largely calorie-specific, whereas the old norms stressed diet diversity.
False. The old norms were largely calorie-specific; the revised norms stress diet diversity, quality protein, healthy fats and micronutrients.
4.States and UTs have been given full flexibility to design menus and recipes based on local food habits.
True. States and UTs can design local menus and recipes.
5.The Dietary Guidelines for Indians, 2024 were released by NITI Aayog.
False. They were released by ICMR-NIN.
6.Mission Poshan 2.0 integrates Anganwadi Services, POSHAN Abhiyaan and the Scheme for Adolescent Girls.
True. These three are merged into Mission Poshan 2.0.
Written by us from the release, not by UPSC; checked by a second model.
Worth revising until Prelims 2028: most news questions come within two years of the event.