9th Rashtriya Poshan Maah Begins from Varanasi

India observes a nutrition month every September. The 9th Rashtriya Poshan Maah will be launched on 9 September 2026. The venue is the Rudraksh International Cooperation and Convention Centre in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. The Ministry of Women and Child Development runs the campaign. Its theme this year is Hamari Anganwadi Hamari Jimmedari. The theme asks every citizen to take shared ownership of the Anganwadi centre in their own locality, described as the largest childcare network in the world.

The mission behind the month

Poshan Maah is one of the ways in which the government spreads awareness of Mission Poshan 2.0. The campaign targets pregnant women, lactating mothers, children, adolescents and their families.

The five priorities of this edition

• Dietary diversity with enough protein, several food groups and local foods
• Fresh and varied hot cooked meals under supplementary nutrition, with menu rotation, hygiene and quality checks
• Community ownership through the newly formed Anganwadi Management Committees, whose guidelines were issued on 23 June 2026, and the display of menu boards
• Cognitive development and nutrition as pillars of early childhood care and education
• Commemoration of ten years of the Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana

Why the tenth year of PMMVY matters

The Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana is the country's flagship maternity benefit programme. It gives income support during pregnancy and pushes mothers towards health care. The campaign stresses the first 1,000 days of life, counted from conception, because growth, brain development and lifelong well-being are decided in that window. Past editions of Poshan Maah worked on maternal nutrition, on infant and young child feeding, on growth monitoring and on hygiene, and this edition places the Anganwadi centre at the centre of that effort.