year, districts in the second year and remaining districts will be covered in the third year. Through robust multi-ministerial convergence mechanism and other components POSHAN ABHIYAN strives to create the synergy. Some direct short term interventions are: (a) Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS )to cover all vulnerable children in the age group of - years and all pregnant and lactating mothers, (b) fortification of essential foods (salt fortified with iodine), (c) production and popularisation of low cost nutritious foods from indigenous and locally available raw material by involving women in this activity and (d) control of micronutrient deficiencies among vulnerable groups, namely deficiencies of iron, vitamin A, folic acid and iodine among children, pregnant women and nursing mothers by supplementing these nutrients, distributing free tablets, etc. Indirect policy instruments include long term strategies for achieving national goals through indirect institutional or structural changes such as: (a) ensuring food security i.e., improving availability of food, (b) improvement in dietary patterns by ensuring availability of nutritionally rich foods and (c) poverty alleviation for rural and urban poor through employment generation schemes and public distribution system, implementing land reforms, improving health and family welfare, prevention of food adulteration, involvement of media, basic nutrition and knowledge, monitoring of nutrition programmes, improvement of status of women, education and literacy and community participation.
There are various strategies that can be used to combat public nutrition problems. They are broadly classified as: a) Diet or food-based strategies b) Nutrient-based approach or medicinal approach Diet or food-based strategies : They are preventive and comprehensive strategies that use food as a tool to overcome nutritional deficiencies. They can play an important role in preventing micronutrient deficiencies by increasing the availability and consumption of micronutrient-rich foods. One of the important advantages of this strategy is that it is sustainable and will have long-term benefits.
Other benefits are that they are cost- effective, can be adapted to different cultural and dietary traditions and very importantly they do not carry risk of overdose or toxicity which may happen in case of nutrient–based / medicinal approach. Some important food-based approaches include