New Delhi: Union Women and Child Development Minister Annpurna Devi will launch the ninth Rashtriya Poshan Maah 2026 in Varanasi on Wednesday, focusing on community ownership and accountability of anganwadi centres, nutrition and early childhood development.
The month-long campaign will be launched at the Rudraksh International Cooperation and Convention Centre in the presence of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Minister of State for Women and Child Development Savitri Thakur and Uttar Pradesh Women Welfare, Child Development and Nutrition Minister Baby Rani Maurya, the ministry said in a statement on Monday.
The theme for this year's Poshan Maah is "Hamari Anganwadi Hamari Jimmedari", which calls upon citizens to take shared ownership of anganwadi centres as the first point of nutrition, health, care and early learning for children.
The campaign will focus on five themes -- dietary diversity and adequate protein; fresh hot cooked meals at anganwadi centres; community ownership and accountability; nutrition, early stimulation and education for childhood development; and 10 years of the Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY).
The ministry said this year's campaign draws momentum from the revised Supplementary Nutrition Programme (SNP) guidelines, which for the first time define Hot Cooked Meals and mandate SNP Menu Boards.
Community ownership and accountability have also been identified as a key theme, with the ministry pushing for accelerated constitution and operationalisation of Anganwadi Management Committees (AMCs) across all anganwadi centres.
"At least one AMC meeting will be held at every anganwadi centre to review service delivery and strengthen community participation," the ministry said.
SNP menu boards will be displayed at every centre to make daily menus and entitlements visible, while AMCs and Mothers' Committees will monitor meal quality and adherence to menus.
Under the early childhood development theme, anganwadi centres will conduct a dedicated drive to record developmental milestones of all enrolled children aged 0-3 years and ensure fast-track referrals for children requiring interventions.
As part of Poshan Maah, every Anganwadi Centre will celebrate Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Day with parent-child activities to showcase the early learning of children aged 3-6 years, the ministry said.
Each centre will also conduct exposure visits to nearby government primary schools for children aged 5-6 years and organise community-led resource mobilisation drives for toys and play and learning materials, it added.
Poshan Maah 2026 will also mark 10 years of PMMVY, the ministry said, adding that a 100 per cent saturation drive will be undertaken to enrol all eligible pregnant and lactating women, expedite direct benefit transfers and launch a PMMVY toolkit for localisation by states and Union Territories.
Guided by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of a 'Suposhit Bharat' as the foundation of a Viksit Bharat by 2047, Poshan Abhiyaan was launched in 2018 to place nutrition at the centre of the national development agenda, the ministry said.
Rashtriya Poshan Maah is observed every September and has grown into a "Jan Andolan" aimed at mobilising communities to strengthen nutrition, health and caregiving practices among women, children and adolescents.
The campaign will be observed across all states and Union Territories through community events at anganwadi centres, schools, panchayats and households.
This report was published from a syndicated wire feed. Apart from the headline, the EdexLive Desk has not edited the copy.