Mukhyamantri Suposhan Abhiyan

What is Mukhyamantri Suposhan Abhiyan?

Mukhyamantri Suposhan Abhiyan is Chhattisgarh's state-wide nutrition campaign, run by the Women and Child Development Department through the anganwadi network. Its stated aim is blunt and measurable: make the state free of malnutrition in children up to 6 years of age and free of anaemia in women aged 15 to 49. The campaign is often written as the Chief Minister's Nutrition Campaign in English-language government material.

The campaign began as a district experiment. Suposhit Dantewada Abhiyan started on 24 June 2019 in Dantewada, one of the state's poorest and most remote districts, and worked well enough that the model was taken statewide on 2 October 2019, chosen to coincide with the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. The original public target was a malnutrition-free Chhattisgarh within three years.

What makes the design different

• The campaign delivers a hot cooked meal eaten at the anganwadi centre, rather than a dry take-home ration that gets shared across the household.
• Beneficiaries are identified by measurement, not by declaration, a child is enrolled because the weighing scale says so, and a woman because a haemoglobin test says so.
• Protein-dense supplements, eggs, jaggery and groundnut laddu; are added twice a week on top of the base meal.
• Delivery is through existing infrastructure: anganwadi centres, anganwadi workers and Mitanins, so no new institution had to be created.

Who is eligible for Mukhyamantri Suposhan Abhiyan?

You or your child can be enrolled if:

• The child is up to 6 years old and is found underweight or malnourished on weight-for-age growth monitoring at the anganwadi centre. Younger malnourished children, typically in the 1 to 3 year band, are the priority group for hot khichdi.
• The woman is aged 15 to 49 and is found anaemic on a haemoglobin test. This includes adolescent girls.
• The woman is pregnant or lactating and registered at the anganwadi centre.
• The household lives in the habitation served by that anganwadi centre in Chhattisgarh.

Who cannot apply or is not eligible:

• Children above 6 years are outside the campaign, though they are covered by the mid-day meal scheme at school.
• Women outside the 15 to 49 age band are not covered by the anaemia arm.
• Adults and children whose measurements are in the normal range are not eligible for the supplementary hot meal. They continue to receive the ordinary ICDS entitlements at the anganwadi.
• Men are not beneficiaries of this campaign.
• Households in a habitation with no functioning anganwadi centre cannot be served until the centre is operational; this should be reported to the district Women and Child Development office.

There is no income test, no caste criterion and no ration-card requirement. Nutritional status is the only gate.

How to apply for Mukhyamantri Suposhan Abhiyan

Mukhyamantri Suposhan Abhiyan has no online application and no form. Enrolment is done in person at the anganwadi centre.

1. Go to your local anganwadi centre with the child, or in your own capacity if you are a pregnant, lactating or adolescent woman. If you do not know which centre serves your habitation, ask your Mitanin or the ward or panchayat office.
2. Ask the anganwadi worker to record measurements. For a child this means weight and height plotted against age on the growth chart. For a woman it means a haemoglobin test, usually done at a village health and nutrition day or by the ANM.
3. Get the name entered on the centre register. A child found underweight or a woman found anaemic is added to the supplementary nutrition list, and the hot meal starts from that day. Carry the Mother and Child Protection card if you have one so the record is continuous.
4. Attend the centre daily for the meal. The campaign works on the meal being eaten at the centre under supervision, which is how compliance is verified.
5. Return for re-measurement. Weight is re-checked periodically; a child who moves into the normal band is graduated out, and one who does not improve is escalated for medical referral.

If the anganwadi worker refuses to enrol an obviously underweight child, escalate to the supervisor or the Child Development Project Officer (CDPO) for the project, and then to the District Programme Officer of the Women and Child Development Department.

What does a beneficiary actually receive?

Reported entitlements under the campaign are food-based, not cash:

Districts adapt the menu to local availability, so the exact plate varies. What does not vary is that the meal is free and cooked, and the state has consistently treated the egg-and-jaggery supplement as the campaign's protein and iron backbone.

What results has the campaign reported?

According to state government reporting picked up in national media:

• The number of malnourished children in Chhattisgarh fell by about 32 per cent within two years of launch, with roughly 1.5 lakh children moving out of the malnourished category in that period.
• Over four years, more than 2.22 lakh children were reported as having recovered from malnutrition through the free nutritious food.
• More than 1 lakh women in the state were reported as having overcome anaemia.

Treat these as the state's own programme figures. Independent survey data such as NFHS measures nutrition differently and over different periods, so the two sets of numbers are not directly comparable.

How is the campaign funded and run at district level?

Mukhyamantri Suposhan Abhiyan is implemented district by district under the Collector's supervision, with the Women and Child Development Department as the nodal department. In mining districts, District Mineral Foundation Trust (DMFT) funds are used to meet implementation costs. The district page for Manendragarh-Chirmiri-Bharatpur, for example, records the campaign as being met from Mineral Trust Fund resources available at district level. Several districts also run the campaign with community contributions of grain and vegetables and with CSR support from local industry.

District pages publish annual targets. To take one illustrative district for the 2023-24 financial year, the target covered 4,419 malnourished children and 5,294 women, of whom 1,487 were anaemic women and 3,807 were pregnant women. Numbers of this kind are set district-wise and change each year, so read your own district's collectorate website for the current target.

Common problems and how to fix them

• Child not being weighed regularly. Growth monitoring is the entry gate. Insist on a monthly weighing and on the reading being written into the MCP card.
• Meal served irregularly. Report gaps to the CDPO. The campaign's whole premise is a daily hot meal.
• Eggs not provided. Egg supply has historically been the most contested part of the menu. Where eggs are unavailable, an equivalent protein substitute should be offered.
• Anaemia not tested. Ask the ANM or Mitanin for a haemoglobin test at the next Village Health, Sanitation and Nutrition Day.
• Family migrated to another village. Re-register at the anganwadi centre at the new location; the entitlement follows the child, not the address.

Where to raise a grievance

• Anganwadi worker, then the anganwadi supervisor, then the Child Development Project Officer for your project.
• District Programme Officer, Women and Child Development, at the collectorate.
• Women and Child Development Department, Chhattisgarh, cgwcd.gov.in.
• Childline 1098 for any child in immediate distress or in a severe acute malnutrition emergency.

Mukhyamantri Suposhan Abhiyan is entirely free. No worker or middleman may charge money to add a child's name to the nutrition register.