Parliament Question: Mission Poshan 2.0

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT LOK SABHA Unstarred Question no. 1088 To be answered on 24.07.2026 Mission Poshan 2.0 1088. Shri C N Annadurai: Shri Selvam G: Will the Minister of WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT be pleased to state: (a) whether the Government has reviewed the implementation of Mission Poshan 2.0 in Tamil Nadu, if so, the details thereof; (b) the details of the funds allocated/released/utilized under the said Mission during the last three years in the said State; (c) whether District Nutrition Committees with certified nutrition experts have been constituted in all the districts of the said State, if so, the details thereof, along with the meetings held and key recommendations made; (d) whether any best practices/innovative measures have been adopted in the said State for ensuring quality procurement and timely distribution of supplementary nutrition, if so, the details thereof; and (e) the details of the measures being taken to strengthen monitoring through the Poshan Tracker and improve transparency, efficiency and accountability in nutrition service delivery in the said State? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT (SHRIMATI SAVITRI THAKUR) (a) to (e): Under the Mission Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0, Supplementary Nutrition is provided to Children (6 months to 6 years), Pregnant Women, Lactating Mothers and Adolescent Girls in accordance with the nutrition norms contained in Schedule-II of the National Food Security Act, 2013, with special provisions for undernourished children. For monitoring and tracking of all activities in the Anganwadi Centres (AWCs), Anganwadi Workers (AWWs) and beneficiaries on defined indicators, the Ministry has launched ‘Poshan Tracker’ digital application.It has facilitated near real time data collection for Anganwadi Services. The application has enabled the Ministry and States & UTs to review the implementation of the scheme on various parameters including health and nutrition status of the children and to make course corrections. The district wise information on nutritional indicators among children (0-5 years) in Tamil Nadu is available on the Poshan Tracker public dashboard at the given link: https://www.poshantracker.in/statistics. The details of the funds allocated /released/utilized under the said Mission during the last three years for the State of Tamil Nadu are enclosed in the Annexure. In all Districts of Tamil Nadu, District Nutrition Committee is constituted under the Chairpersonship of District Collector along with Child Development Project Officers with specialization in Food Science and Nutrition as Members of the Committee. District Programme Officer is Member Secretary. This Committee meets every month and reviews the infrastructure development of Anganwadi Centres (AWCs), enrollment of beneficiaries, quality of food served in the AWCs (both Take Home Ration and Hot cooked meal), supply of food commodities from civil supplies, provision of seeds and seedlings to AWCs for creating kitchen garden, monitoring low birth weight babies through Home based Young Child Care (HBYC) in convergence with Health and Family Welfare Department, screening all children in the age group of 0-6 years by Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK), referral of malnourished children and monitoring of high risk pregnancies etc. The details of the measures as reported by authorities in Tamil Nadu for ensuring quality procurement and timely distribution of supplementary nutrition are given below: • The Sathu Mavu distributed to children for the age group 6 months -2 years strictly comply with the regulatory norms of BIS Standards 11536:2022. • For ensuring quality procurement and supply, the Sathu Mavu produced by the Weaning Food Manufacturing Women's Development Cooperative Societies and Private Manufacturers are sent to Government certified laboratories for thorough quality testing and distributed to the AWCs only after obtaining the quality certificate. • To ensure the quality of Sathu Mavu supplied to the Anganwadi centers random samples from each manufacturer are collected from the AWCs directly and sent to the State Food Analysis Laboratories by the District Project Officers for quality verification.• Timely supply of Sathu Mavu to AWCs is ensured in the way that production of Sathu Mavu is completed on or before 25th of every month and ready for distribution to Anganwadi Centres. • Sathu Mavu is produced by Weaning food manufacturing Women Development Industrial Cooperative Societies, located across various districts which helps in uplifting the economic status of under privileged women. The details of measures being taken to strengthen monitoring through Poshan Tracker and improve transparency, efficiency and accountability in nutrition service delivery in Tamil Nadu are as below: • Monthly performance review meeting of District Programme Officers is conducted by the Secretary/ Director Cum Mission Director of ICDS based on Poshan Tracker data such as nutritional indicators, status of malnutrition across the districts, infrastructure, supportive supervision, staff position in the application, Facial Recognition System to ensure the distribution of Supplementary Nutrition to all beneficiaries, growth monitoring of children, Aadhaar /APAAR enrollment status and grievance redressal etc. • District Collectors meeting is periodically conducted by the Chief Secretary to Government to review the implementation of all schemes and ongoing programme which also includes the adequacy of infrastructure in AWCs and the status of SAM/MAM children in the districts. • Periodical training for hassle free usage of the Poshan Tracker application is being provided to field functionaries. • Once in 3 months, refresher training is given to all Anganwadi workers related to Poshan Tracker to ensure seamless functioning of the digital application. AnnexureFunds allocated/released/utilized to the State of Tamil Nadu under Mission Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 during the last three years (Rupees in crore) 2023-24 2024-25 2025-26 Funds released Fund utilised Funds released Fund utilised Funds released 880.79 662.4 638.47 632.41 636.6