Parliament Question: Implementation of Women and Child Welfare Schemes in Tribal Areas

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.3678 TO BE ANSWERED ON 13.03.2026 IMPLEMENTATION OF WOMEN AND CHILD WELFARE SCHEMES IN TRIBAL AREAS 3678. SHRI AASHTIKAR PATIL NAGESH BAPURAO: Will the Minister of WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT be pleased to state: (a) whether the benefits of women and child welfare schemes such as Anganwadi Services, POSHAN Abhiyaan, PMMVY, ICDS, scholarships for girls, and health and nutrition programmes are not reaching eligible beneficiaries in a timely and effective manner in the tribal-dominated remote areas of the Hingoli Parliamentary Constituency in Maharashtra; (b) whether women and children in these areas are facing serious problems such as irregular nutrition supply at Anganwadi centres, lack of basic facilities in Ashram schools and hostels, inadequate maternal and child health services in remote villages, increasing malnutrition and anaemia, delays in DBT and scholarship payments due to digital and banking constraints, and shortage of functional Anganwadi centres; (c) if so, the details thereof; and (d) whether any special action plan/special package has been proposed specifically for the said Parliamentary Constituency, if so, the details thereof? ANSWER MINISTER OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT (SHRIMATI ANNPURNA DEVI) (a) to (d) For effective implementation and efficient monitoring, various schemes implemented by the Ministry of Women & Child Development for women and child welfare all over the country, including in tribal-dominated remote areas of the Hingoli Parliamentary Constituency in Maharashtra, have been reviewed and clubbed into three Umbrella Missions viz. (1) Mission Saksham Anganwadi & Poshan 2.0 for improving nutrition & health indicators (2) Mission Shakti, for safety, protection and empowerment of women; and (3) Mission Vatsalya, for protection, care and welfare of children in difficult circumstances. Details of the schemes are as under: (i) Saksham Anganwadi & Poshan 2.0 (Mission Poshan 2.0): Under this mission, Anganwadi Services Scheme, POSHAN Abhiyaan and Scheme for Adolescent Girls have beenreorganized into 3 primary sub-verticals: (i) Nutrition Support for Children, Pregnant Women & Lactating Mothers and for Adolescent Girls (ii) Early Childhood Care and Education and (iii) Anganwadi Infrastructure including upgraded Saksham Anganwadis. Under this Mission the details of beneficiaries in Hingoli District in Maharashtra as on 28.02.2026 is as hereunder: Children 80103 Pregnant Women 4829 Lactating Mothers 4942 (ii) Mission Shakti: It aims at strengthening interventions for women safety, security and empowerment. Mission Shakti comprises of two verticals 'Sambal' for safety and security of women and "Samarthya for empowerment of women including rural and economically weaker regions of the country. The 'Sambal has components of One Stop Centre (OSC), Women Helpline(WHL), Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) and Nari Adalat (Nari Adalat). The 'Samarthya' has components of Shakti Sadan, Sakhi Niwas, Padhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY), Palna and SANKALP: Hub for Empowerment of Women (SNKALP: HEW). As of date, 67 One Stop Centres (OSCs) are operational in Maharashtra. Out of these, one OSC each is functioning in Hingoli, Nanded, and Yavatmal districts. Till 31 December 2025, OSCs have assisted more than 13.37 lakh women across the country, out of which 42,393 women have been assisted in the State of Maharashtra. Till 31 January 2026, Women Helplines (WHLs) have assisted over 97.81 lakh women nationwide, including 3.57 lakh women in Maharashtra. Also, one Sakhi Niwas is also functional in Hingoli district of Maharashtra. Benefits have been extended to over 4.27 crore women through PMMVY scheme since inception till 09.03.2026. The details of beneficiaries who have been maternity benefits under PMMVY in the Hingoli, Nanded and Yavatmal Districts of Hingoli Parliamentary Constituency are as under: FY Wise Beneficiaries paid in the districts District 2025-26 2023-24 2024-25 (as on 09.03.2026) HINGOLI 583 2,634 6,698 NANDED 3,292 15,624 21,030 YAVATMAL 1,737 13,889 22,458(iii) Mission Vatsalya: Mission Vatsalya includes the Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) for better outreach and protection for children in need and care in a mission mode with the objective to: (i) Support and sustain Children in difficult circumstances. (ii) Develop context-based solutions for holistic development of children from varied backgrounds. (iii)Provide scope for encouraging innovative solutions, (iv) Cement convergent action. Further, several steps have been under taken to strengthen the implementation of these schemes, as explained below: • A new portal, Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana Software (PMMVYSoft) has been launched, under which Aadhaar authentication through UIDAI and National Payment Corporations of India (NPCI) verification is ensured so that funds are directly transferred to their DBT-enabled Aadhaar-seeded bank or post office accounts. • Available database of the Pregnant Women & Lactating Mothers from Poshan Tracker is used to create a “Due List” of potential beneficiaries on PMMVY Portal accessible at AWW/ASHA level. • IT systems have been leveraged to strengthen and bring about transparency in nutrition delivery support systems at the Anganwadi Centres. The ‘Poshan Tracker’ application was rolled out as an important governance tool. The Poshan Tracker facilitates monitoring and tracking of all AWCs, AWWs and beneficiaries on defined indicators. The States/UTs have also been advised to discontinue the use of physical registers and use Poshan Tracker to reduce work load of Anganwadi workers and improving their efficiency. To track last mile Service Delivery, Facial Recognition System (FRS) is used for distribution of Take-Home Ration to ensure that benefit is given only to the intended beneficiary registered in Poshan Tracker. *****