government fund. apart from this, the international society for krishna consciousness's (iskcon) iskcon food relief foundation, the nalabothu foundation, and the akshaya patra foundation run the world's largest ngo-run midday meal programs, each serving freshly cooked plant-based meals to over 1.3 million school children in government and government-aided schools in india. these programs are conducted with part subsidies from the government and partly with donations from individuals and corporations. the meals served by food for life annamrita and akshaya patra comply with the nutritional norms given by the government of india and aims to eradicate malnutrition among children in india. food for life annamrita (ffla) is the premier affiliate of food for life global, the world's largest free food relief network, with projects in over 60 countries. integrated child development scheme the government of india started a program called integrated child development services (icds) in 1975. icds has been instrumental in improving the health of mothers and children under age 6 by providing health and nutrition education, health services, supplementary food, and pre-school education. icds is run by india's central government via the ministry of women and child development, targeting rural, urban, and tribal populations and has reached over 70 million young children and 16 million pregnant and lactating mothers. other programs impacting under-nutrition include the national midday meal scheme, the national rural health mission, and the public distribution system (pds). the challenge for these programs and schemes is how to increase efficiency, impact, and coverage. bal kuposhan mukta bihar (bkmb) is a campaign launched by the department of social welfare, government of bihar in 2014. the campaign is based on five "c": communication for behavior change capacity building community's access to tangibles and intangibles community participation and collective approach. the multi-pronged strategy shows that a health issue like malnutrition can be tackled with the help of behaviour change communication (bcc) and other social aspects. national children's fund the national children's fund was created during the international year of the child in 1979 under the charitable endowment fund act, 1890. this fund provides support to voluntary organizations that help the welfare of kids. national plan of action for children india is a signatory to the 27 survival and development goals laid down by the world summit on children 1990. to implement these goals, the department of women & child development has formulated a national plan of action on children. each concerned central ministries/departments, state governments/u.ts. and voluntary organisations dealing with women and children have been asked to take up appropriate measures to implement the action plan. these goals have been integrated into national development plans. a monitoring committee under the chairpersonship of secretary (women & child development) reviews the achievement of goals set in the national plan of action. all concerned central ministries/departments are represented on the committee. 15 state governments have prepared state plan of action on the lines of national plan of action specifying targets for 1995 as well as for 2000 and spelling out strategies for holistic child development. united nations international children's emergency fund department of women and child development is the nodal department for unicef. india is associated with unicef since 1949 and is now in the fifth decade of cooperation for assisting most disadvantaged children and their mothers. traditionally, unicef has been supporting india in several sectors like child development, women's development, urban basic services, support for community-based convergent services, health, education, nutrition, water & sanitation, disabled children, children in especially difficult circumstances, information and communication, planning and program support. india was a member of the unicef executive board until 31 december 1997. the board has 3 regular sessions and one annual session in a year. strategies and other important matters relating to unicef are discussed in those meetings. a meeting of government of india and unicef officials concurred on 12 november 1997 to finalize the strategy and areas for the program of cooperation for the next master plan of operations 1999–2002 which is to synchronize with the ninth plan of government of india. national health mission national rural health mission the national rural health mission of india mission was created for the years 2005–2012, and its goal is to "improve the availability of and access to quality health care by people, especially for those residing in rural areas, the poor, women, and children." the subset of goals under this mission is: reduce infant mortality rate (imr) and maternal mortality ratio (mmr), neonatal mortality rate (nmr) provide universal access to public health services prevent and control both communicable and non-communicable diseases, including locally endemic diseases provide access to integrated comprehensive primary healthcare create population stabilization, as well as gender and demographic balance revitalize local health traditions and mainstream ayush finally, to promote healthy lifestyles the mission has set up strategies and action plan to meet all of its goals. notes explanatory variables of maternal characteristics used were: years of education; body mass index (bmi); anemia status; autonomy in seeking medical assistance for self; and place of birth for the child in the study.