PM-POSHAN SCHEME

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In News:

• The Union Ministry of Education has formed a Joint Review Mission to visit West Bengal to examine the performance of the Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman (PM POSHAN).
• The Joint Review Mission includes;
  • Nutrition experts
  • Officers from the Union Government
  • Officers from the State Government.
• The team will review the implementation of the scheme at the State, district and at school levels.
• The Joint Review Mission to review:
  • Fund transferred from State to Schools/implementing agencies.
  • Coverage of the Scheme.
  • Availability of Management Structure at the State, District, and Block level.
  • The delivery mechanism of food grains from State to Schools.
  • Creation of Capital Assets.
  • Construction of Kitchen-cum-stores.
  • Procurement/Replacement of Kitchen Devices.
  • Involvement of NGOs/Trust/Centralized kitchens in the Scheme.
  • The payment of the Cost of Food grains to the Food Corporation of India.
  • The Management Information System (MIS).
  • The implementation of an Automated Monitoring System

PM-Poshan Schemes:

• The Midday Meal Scheme is a school meal programme in India designed to better the nutritional standing of school-age children nationwide, the Ministry of Education.
• The programme supplies free lunches on working days for children in primary and upper primary classes in government, government-aided, local body, Education Guarantee Scheme, and alternate innovative education centres, Madarsa and Maqtabs supported under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, and National Child Labour Project schools run by the ministry of labour.
• Serving 120 million children in over 1.27 million schools and Education Guarantee Scheme centres, the Midday Meal Scheme is the largest of its kind in the world.
• The Midday Meal Scheme has been implemented in the Union Territory of Puducherry under the French Administration since 1930.
• In post-independent India, the Midday meal Scheme was first launched in Tamil Nadu, during the early 60s.
  • Union Government initiated the National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education (NP-NSPE) on 15 August 1995.
  • By 2002, the scheme was implemented in all of the states under the orders of the Supreme Court of India.
• The name of the scheme was changed to PM-POSHAN (Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman) Scheme, in September 2021, by the Ministry of Education, which is the nodal ministry for the scheme.
  • The Central Government also announced that an additional 24 lakh students receiving pre-primary education at government & government-aided schools would also be included under the scheme by 2022.
• Key Features of PM-POSHAN Scheme;
  • It will provide one hot cooked meal in Government and Government-aided schools from 2021-22 to 2025-26.
  • This is a Centrally-Sponsored Scheme which covers all school children studying in Classes I-VIII in Government, Government-Aided Schools.
  • The concept of Tithi Bhojan will be encouraged extensively. Tithi Bhojan is a community participation programme in which people provide special food to children on special occasions/festivals.
  • Promoting Nutrition Gardens in schools to give children first-hand experience with nature and gardening. The harvest of these gardens is used in the scheme providing additional micronutrients.
  • Social Audit of the scheme is made mandatory in all the districts.
  • Special provision to provide supplementary nutrition items to children in aspirational districts and districts with a high prevalence of Anemia.
  • A nutrition expert is to be appointed in each school to measure and suggest health aspects such as Body Mass Index (BMI), weight, haemoglobin levels, etc.
  • The involvement of Farmers' Producer Organizations (FPO) and Women Self Help Groups in the implementation of the scheme will be encouraged.
  • The use of locally grown traditional food items to support local economic growth will be encouraged.
  • Government to switch to Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) system to provide payment under the scheme.

Must Read: https://www.iasgyan.in/daily-current-affairs/national-food-security-act-nfsa

https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1891104