Pada Pushti Karyakram

The “Pada Pushti Karyakram (PPK)” has been launched by the Department of Women & Child Development, Government of Odisha, to ensure access to supplementary nutrition by all children, residing in hard-to-reach villages where there is no Anganwadi centers. As part of this programme preschool children aged 3-6 years residing in hard-to-reach villages and currently not accessing the spot feeding programme that runs at the Anganwadi center shall be provided with both morning snacks and hot cook meals at their village location. The Pada Pushti Karyakram is functioning as an extension of respective Anganwadi Centers (AWCs) in the hard-to-reach villages. Objectives: The primary objective of Pada Pushti Karyakram are as follows: - Improve access to entitlement: To ensure that that all preschool children aged 3-6 years in the hard-to-reach villages have access to mandated Supplementary Nutrition entitlements. - Increased uptake and utilization: To improve coverage and utilization of ICDS services among children of nutritionally vulnerable communities. - Community Participation: To enhance awareness among mothers and community members on nutrition services and promote proper maternal and child nutrition practices in hard-toreach villages. Identification of hard-to-reach villages: The following criteria shall be followed for identification of villages for hard-to-reach villages for this programmе - The pada/village that does not have its own Anganwadi Center and located more than two kilometers from the tagged center and there is geographic barrier for communication. - Forest villages not having an Anganwadi Center. - There should be at least 5 or more children between the age group of 3 years to 6 years to run Pada Pusti Karyakram. In case the number of children comes down below 5, the program would be discontinued in that village and may be moved to another village.