Panaji: At least 701 malnourished children were identified by the Poshan Tracker application under the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) in 2023-24, which enabled targeted and closely monitored interventions to provide children with nutritious meals.The Poshan Tracker is a mobile application initiated by the ministry of women and child evelopment, used to identify stunting, wasting, and underweight prevalence among children.Responding to an unstarred LAQ raised by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Venzy Viegas, women and child development minister Vishwajit Rane said that the department is taking measures for treatment and nutritional support for malnourished children, such as providing rice porridge instant mix, millet porridge, rawa upma, and multi grain mix to children in the age group of six months to three years.Children in the age group of three years to six years are given hot cooked meals consisting of soya chunk pulao, sweet idli, pulses usal, rawa shira, and groundnut chikki, as per children’s/parents’ demand, along with the weekly menus. Each child identified with malnutrition is referred to the nearest health care centre for treatment.The department spent Rs 23.6 crore on the supplementary nutrition programme, which consists of take home ration and hot cooked meals.The ICDS functionaries perform frequent supervisory visits to the anganwadi centres and the homes of children in the severe acute malnutrition and moderate acute malnutrition categories.Some anganwadi centres also have nutri gardens to promote access to local vegetables and enhance dietary diversity. There are 1,262 anganwadi centres operational in the state, with trained staff providing meals to the children.The department also planned many activities to address the issue of malnutrition, such as Poshan Maah and Poshan Pakhwada.
