GSK Partnership Brings Nutrition Awareness to 8,000 Mothers
Under BITAN's 'Poshan Maa' initiative, 8,000 pregnant and lactating women received counselling on nutrition, anaemia prevention, and infant feeding practices across South 24 Parganas.
BITAN's 'Poshan Maa' maternal nutrition initiative — delivered in partnership with GlaxoSmithKline's community health programme — reached its 8,000-beneficiary milestone in November 2025. Launched in April 2024, Poshan Maa operates through a network of trained Village Nutrition Volunteers (VNVs) who conduct monthly home visits and group counselling sessions for pregnant and lactating women in 210 villages across South 24 Parganas district.
The programme addresses one of South 24 Parganas' most persistent public health challenges: anaemia and malnutrition among women of reproductive age. District health data shows that over 58% of women in the programme's target villages were anaemic at the baseline survey conducted in early 2024. Poshan Maa combines individual dietary counselling, cooking demonstrations using locally available foods, iron and folic acid supplementation support, and linkages to Anganwadi services.
An independent mid-term review conducted in September 2025 found that women enrolled in the programme for six months or more showed a 22-percentage-point reduction in moderate anaemia rates compared to a matched comparison group. Exclusive breastfeeding rates in programme villages rose from 41% to 67% over the same period. Immunisation rates for children under 2 also improved, as VNV home visits create touchpoints for addressing vaccination hesitancy.
GSK's contribution includes training materials, nutritional supplements for the most severely malnourished beneficiaries, and field visits by GSK's nutrition science team to validate the programme's dietary counselling content. "This partnership is a model of what corporate investment in primary nutrition can achieve at scale," said BITAN's health director at a mid-term review workshop held in Kolkata.
Poshan Maa is set to expand into Murshidabad and North 24 Parganas districts in the first quarter of 2026, subject to securing additional CSR funding. BITAN is currently preparing a detailed programme evaluation report that will be shared with the state's Integrated Child Development Services directorate.