Community Nutrition and National Nutrition Programmes
What this domain tests
Community nutrition addresses nutritional problems at population level through assessment, food-based approaches, supplementation, fortification and public programmes. The exam tests programme objectives, target groups and the nutrition problem each addresses.
Core rules
- ICDS provides supplementary nutrition, growth monitoring, immunisation, health check-ups and pre-school education for children under six, pregnant women and lactating mothers.
- PM POSHAN (formerly Mid-Day Meal) provides cooked meals to school children to improve nutrition and school participation.
- Anaemia Mukt Bharat targets anaemia through iron-folic acid supplementation, deworming, fortified foods and behaviour change.
- National Iodine Deficiency Disorders Control Programme promotes iodised salt to prevent goitre and cretinism.
- Poshan Abhiyaan aims to reduce malnutrition through convergence, technology and community mobilisation.
Worked example
A village reports several goitre cases. Reasoning: goitre suggests iodine deficiency, so the response is not merely giving iron tablets. The plan is to check salt iodisation, promote iodised salt storage and use, screen for thyroid enlargement, and link with the national iodine deficiency programme. Iodine supplementation may be needed in severe settings, but universal salt iodisation is the population strategy.
Traps that cost marks
- Mixing up ICDS and PM POSHAN target groups.
- Treating goitre as iron deficiency anaemia.
- Describing a programme without its target group or service package.
- Assuming fortification replaces a diverse diet rather than supplementing it.