Parliament Question: Poshan 2.0 Tracker App

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3267 TO BE ANSWERED ON 08.08.2025 POSHAN 2.0 TRACKER APP

3267. SHRI PRABHAKAR REDDY VEMIREDDY:

SHRI GURJEET SINGH AUJLA:

Will the Minister of Women and Child Development be pleased to state:

(a) The current status of the implementation of Poshan 2.0;

(b) whether Ministry has started facial recognition system/biometric authentication for Poshan 2.0 beneficiaries through Poshan 2.0 tracker application, if so, details thereof;

(c) the details of the constrains Government is facing from Aadhaar-based authentication in the Poshan tracker App including lack of Smart phones, 4G connectivity, network issue in rural/tribal areas, Anganwadi Centers;

(d) whether privacy of children not compromised as photos are uploaded and are in the database of Government, if so, the details thereof;

(e) whether two-factor authentication (photograph/OTP linked to Aadhar) is mandatory to receive Take Home Ration (THR), if so, the details thereof;

(f) whether denial of THR without said authentication is in violation of National Food Security Act at Supreme Court judgement regarding right to pregnant women lactating mothers and children;

(g) whether the Face Recognition System (FRS) has been implemented without adequate infrastructure, if so, the details thereof; and

(h) whether Government intend to suspend/review the implementation of FRS requirement, if so, the details thereof along with the step being taken to protect Anganwadi Workers from any harassment and uphold beneficiaries right under Food Security Act? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT (SHRIMATI SAVITRI THAKUR)

(a) to (h): Under the 15th Finance Commission, various components like Anganwadi services, Poshan Abhiyaan and Scheme for Adolescent girls (of 14-18 years in AspirationalDistricts and North-Eastern region) have been subsumed under the umbrella Mission Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 (Mission Poshan 2.0) to address the challenge of malnutrition. It is a Centrally Sponsored mission, where the responsibility for implementation of various activities lies with the States and UTs. This mission is a universal self-selecting umbrella scheme where there are no entry barriers for any beneficiary to register and receive services.

Under this mission, Supplementary Nutrition is provided to Children (6 months to 6 years), Pregnant Women, Lactating Mothers and Adolescent Girls to beat the intergenerational cycle of malnutrition by adopting a life cycle approach. Supplementary nutrition is provided in accordance with the nutrition norms contained in Schedule-II of the National Food Security Act. These norms have been revised in January 2023. The old norms were largely calorie-specific; however, the revised norms are more comprehensive and balanced in terms of both quantity and quality of supplementary nutrition based on the principles of diet diversity that provides for quality protein, healthy fats and micronutrients.

Face Recognition System (FRS) Module was initially implemented as a pilot in the month of August 2024. It was implemented on an optional basis pan India in the month of December 2024. Since then, duty holders in the States and UTs have been trained to perform facial recognition and verify beneficiaries with Aadhaar database. It is implemented since July 1, 2025 for ensuring last mile delivery of take-home ration to the rightful beneficiary. The FRS module has been developed as part of Poshan Tracker application. To verify a beneficiary through Aadhar identification, eKYC is performed along with capturing of liveliness image of the beneficiary. This onboarding process is performed once in the lifetime of the beneficiary on Poshan Tracker. For availing benefits of take-home ration on monthly basis, face matching can be performed both in online and offline mode and no repeated eKYC is required. The offline mode feature has been developed keeping in consideration the areas with low digital connectivity. The Facial Recognition feature has been made compatible for low end version phones as well. Bal Aadhar for children under 5 years of age doesn’t contain any biometric data; therefore, for children aged upto 6 years, the FRS of the mother/father/guardian is being done and not that of the child.

As on 5th August 2025, face capturing and e-KYC of 3.69 crore THR beneficiaries out of the 4.91 crore eligible beneficiaries registered for Take Home Ration(THR), which is almost

75.12%, have already been completed.

Regular training and handholding sessions have been conducted by NeGD State Coordinators. Further, field visits by officials of the Ministry of Women and Child Development, GoI. and regular meetings with State officials have also been conducted to understand and redress technical difficulties.

Various Data Protection Safeguards exist in the system. Some of them are mentioned

below:  The data of the beneficiary, which is collected, is subject to all existing data protection protocols, which mandates purpose limitation, informed consent, and access restrictions. ⁠All requests and responses related to Face Verification are encrypted during transit, ensuring data is protected from interception or tampering.

 ⁠No images or data are stored permanently on the device. As a precautionary measure, all cached or temporary data is wiped automatically when the Anganwadi worker logs out of the application.  The private data is not publicly accessible; it is only available to authorized personnel solely for verification purposes.

 The Poshan Tracker application is typically used by Anganwadi Workers and it is not open to the public or any unauthorized party. Access is role-based, logged and monitored to prevent misuse.  Further, the application's internal database is encrypted, preventing access to sensitive information outside the app environment  Face images are handled in encoded format within the app to ensure safe processing and transmission.

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