On: 28 JUL 2023 – PoshanBhiPadhaiBhi (PBPB) is a path breaking ECCE program to help India develop the worlds largest, universal, high-quality pre-school network at AnganwadiCenters, in alignment with the new National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. Under the programme, steps have been taken to bolster early childhood care and education and good nutrition practices through development and use of Do-It-Yourself (DIY) and locally available toys for learning at AWCs. All 36 States/ UT’s have been paired to facilitate exchange of indigenous toys/folklores as part of the vision for Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat. Detailed guidelines have been shared with all States on creation of DIY toy kits as part of Teaching Learning Material creation workshops. Further, NIPCCD has collated and digitized toy focused teaching and learning content.
PBPB is not a separate scheme but is a programme component under ECCE of Anganwadi services under Mission Poshan 2.0. There is no separate budget for the programme as it is part of the overall budget allocated for Mission SakshamAnganwadi and Poshan 2.0.
The implementation of PBPB includes conducting Capacity Building trainings for ICDS functionaries. The objectives of the training program include (i) promoting early stimulation for the first 1000 days and ECCE for children 3-6 years of age, (ii) developing ECCE understanding of Anganwadi Workers, (iii) emphasizing developmental domains (socio-emotional-ethical, physical and motor, cognitive, etc., and the development of Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN), and (iv). reinforcing nutrition knowledge of Anganwadi Workers.
The training programmes are designed to be conducted through a Two-Tier Model to cover all the engaged functionaries’ upto the AWC level in all States/UTs in a 3 day Training programme to be conducted through NIPCCD. However, initially, to test the training content and implementation model, a pilot training programme has been designed for 10 Districts across the country, namely, Dhubri-Assam, Madhubani-Bihar, Bastar-Chhattisgarh, West Singhbhum-Jharkhand, Koppal-Karnataka, Sheopur-Madhya Pradesh, Gadchiroli-Maharashtra, Dholpur-Rajasthan, Adilabad-Telangana, and Budaun-Uttar Pradesh.
Under Mission Poshan 2.0, convergence is a key component to ensure monitoring and implementation of service delivery. To facilitate the same, at the district level, there is the mechanism of the District Nutrition Committee with the DM/DC as Chairperson and all officers from line departments such as Health, Education, Panchayati Raj, Rural Development etc. Similarly at the State-level, the State level Steering Committee is headed by the Chief Secretary of the State. These institutional mechanisms are in place to oversee the outcome and delivery of the scheme. Further, an IT application (Poshan Tracker) was rolled out on 1st March 2021 to monitor progress of Mission Poshan 2.0 in near real-time on defined indicators. Technology under Poshan Tracker is already being leveraged for dynamic identification of stunting, wasting, under-weight prevalence among children and last mile tracking of service delivery, including both nutrition and early childhood development through daily activities.
This information was given by the Minister of Women and Child Development, Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani, in a written reply in Lok Sabha.
