On the fourth day of Navratri, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma wove together devotion and public-health resolve — invoking Maa Kushmanda, the goddess said to have created the universe with her smile, to call on every family and village in Assam to take shared ownership of the fight against anaemia and malnutrition. The post, shared on Wednesday, 14 October 2026, anchors religious observance firmly to the state's delivery of POSHAN Abhiyaan through its Anganwadi network.

What Navratri's fourth day means for Assam's nutrition message

Kushmanda, in Hindu tradition, is venerated as the source of life, light, and nourishment — a theological frame CM Sarma used deliberately. 'She is the source of life, health and nourishment,' he wrote, before pivoting immediately: 'That nourishment begins in the womb and in a child's first years.' The leap from prayer to policy was swift and intentional, directing the devotional energy of Navratri toward a concrete public-health goal.

This is not incidental. Indian governments have periodically used cultural festivals to amplify maternal and child nutrition campaigns, and a BJP chief minister invoking a Navratri goddess to underline a central scheme carries both symbolic and political weight. The goddess becomes a hook; the Anganwadi becomes the answer.

POSHAN Abhiyaan on the ground: Assam's Anganwadi delivery chain

POSHAN Abhiyaan, launched by the Government of India in 2018, is the flagship central programme targeting stunting, under-nutrition, and anaemia in children, adolescent girls, pregnant women, and lactating mothers. Its village-level delivery arm is the Anganwadi centre, part of the decades-old Integrated Child Development Services architecture.

CM Sarma's post spells out what those centres do in Assam: supplementary nutrition, hot cooked meals, health check-ups, and counselling — reaching pregnant women, lactating mothers, adolescent girls, and children under six. Crucially, he highlighted individual tracking: 'Our Anganwadi workers and helpers track every beneficiary, so that no mother or child is left behind.' That last-mile accountability is the hardest part of any nutrition scheme, and naming the workers — not just the programme — is a pointed acknowledgement.

'Hamari Anganwadi, Hamari Jimmedari' — the Poshan Maah call to families

Poshan Maah, observed every September since 2018, is the annual community-mobilisation campaign tied to POSHAN Abhiyaan. This year's edition, CM Sarma noted, carried the slogan 'Hamari Anganwadi, Hamari Jimmedari' — 'Our Anganwadi, Our Responsibility.' The message is a deliberate shift in framing: good nutrition is not only a government programme, he wrote, but 'a shared duty of every family and every village.'

That framing matters because nutrition outcomes in northeastern India — where anaemia rates among women and children have historically been elevated — cannot be moved by government delivery alone. Behaviour change at the household level, around diet, breastfeeding, and adolescent health, is where schemes succeed or stall. The slogan asks communities to close that gap.

The resolve CM Sarma is asking Assam to carry beyond the festival

'A healthy mother raises a healthy child, and healthy children build a strong Assam,' CM Sarma wrote, closing with a specific pledge: to 'free our women and children from anaemia and malnutrition.' Navratri ends; the resolve, he is saying, should not.

Whether Assam moves the needle on malnutrition and anaemia indicators after this year's Poshan Maah activities will be the measure that matters most. The prayers are offered. The accountability, for Anganwadi workers, families, and the state government alike, runs all year.