Aahaar Kranti Mission launched by Health Ministry – Check all the Facts Here!

Hello People!
We are back with another article. Today, we will discuss the Mission Aahaar Kranti which was recently launched by Union Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan. In this article, we will cover all the facts related to this mission. We will also talk about the problem of malnutrition in India and important government schemes to tackle it. So let’s start by looking at what this mission is all about.

What is Aahaar Kranti Mission?

• Aahaar Kranti Mission has been recently launched by the Ministry of Science and Technology. 
• Aim: The mission is aimed to spread the message of the need for a nutritionally balanced diet. Further, it will highlight the importance of being accessible to all local fruits and vegetables.
• The motto of the mission is उत्तम आहार-उत्तम विचार (Uttam Aahaar Uttam Vichaar) or `Good Diet-Good Cognition’.
• It is a joint movement of Vijnana Bharati (Vibha) and Global Indian Scientists’ and Technocrats’ Forum (GIST). The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)’s Pravasi Bharatiya Academic and Scientific Sampark (Prabhaas) is also collaborating.

Key Features of Aahaar Kranti Mission

• The mission will work on multiple dimensions simultaneously. In terms of objectives, it will seek to promote: 

1. Better Awareness
2. Better Nutrition
3. Better Agriculture

• It will focus on training teachers, who, in turn, will pass on the message to the multitudes of students. Through students, this message will pass to their families and finally the society at large. This sort of strategy was adopted for the eradication of Polio and it turned out to be a grand success.
• The messages will be imparted through the curriculum in the form of `what’s and `why’s of nutrition. It will also be done through the forms of games or as instructions such as `how to’.
• The mission is aimed to reach out to as many as possible. For this, the content will be available both online and offline and in all vernacular languages besides English and Hindi. 
• The mission will also utilize India’s rich knowledge of Ayurveda-based nutrition to practice.

Need for Aahaar Kranti Mission

• To address the peculiar problem of ‘hunger and diseases in abundance’ being faced by India and the world. 
• To tackle the problem of malnourishment in the country.
• Lack of nutritional awareness in all sections of our society.
• There is a need for a nutritionally balanced diet especially in the current scenario of COVID-19 pandemic.
• Further, UN sustainable goal 3 states, “Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.” This goal too makes Aahaar Kranti more meaningful.

Aahaar Kranti Mission: Significance

• The movement will address the current situation of hunger in abundance.
• It will make people aware of the values of India’s traditional diet and the healing powers of local fruits and vegetables.
• The mission will renew the focus on nutritionally balanced diets and highlight the importance of locally sourced fruits and vegetables.
• The Vibha and GIST have aimed to set Aahaar Kranti as a model for the entire world to follow.
• The mission is in line with the United Nations’ declaration of  2021 as the International Year of Fruits and Vegetables.

Malnutrition in India

• Malnutrition is the major contributing factor to one-third child deaths in the country.
• FAO estimates that 194.4 million people in India (about 14.5% of the total population) are undernourished.
• According to UNICEF, India is at 10th spot among countries with the highest number of underweight children. Also, the organisation says that India is at 17th spot among countries with the highest number of stunted children.
• As per the Global Nutrition Report 2020, India is among 88 countries that are likely to miss global nutrition targets by 2025.
• India ranks 102 out of 117 countries in the Global Hunger Index 2019.
• In addition, Covid-19 has posed serious threats to children and their health and nutritional rights. The nationwide lockdown has disrupted access to essential services like Mid-Day Meals which further created nutritional challenges.

Other Schemes launched by Government of India to tackle Malnutrition

1. National Nutrition Mission: This Mission is also called POSHAN Abhiyaan. The objective of this mission is to make India free of malnutrition by 2022. The target groups of this mission are pregnant and lactating mothers, children and adolescents.
2. Anemia Mukt Bharat Abhiyan: It is launched in 2018. The mission aims at accelerating the annual rate of decline of anaemia from one to three percentage points.
3. Indira Gandhi Matritva Sahyog Yojna: This mission focuses on providing cash incentives to pregnant and lactating mothers for improved health and nutrition.
4. National Health Mission (NHM): It was launched in the year 2013. It absorbed 2 other missions – National Rural Health Mission and National Urban Health Mission. 
5. National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013: It aims to ensure food and nutrition security for the most vulnerable sections. Through its associated schemes and programmes, it made access to food a legal right.
6. Mid Day Meal Scheme: It was launched in 1995. It aims to improve nutritional levels among school children aged between 6 years to 14 years.
7. National Nutrition Policy: It was launched in 1993. The objective of this mission was to achieve optimum nutrition for all.

With this, we come to the end of this article. We have covered all the major points about the Aahaar Kranti Mission. Additionally, we have also discussed the problem of malnutrition in India and important government schemes to tackle it. Hope you find this article interesting and informative. 

Thank you for reading!