Parliament Question: Welfare of Women and Adolescents

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF WOMEN & CHILD DEVELOPMENT LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION No. 3309 TO BE ANSWERED ON 08.08.2025 WELFARE OF WOMEN AND ADOLESCENTS 3309. ADV. GOWAAL KAGADA PADAVI: Will the Minister of Women and Child Development be pleased to state: a) the current status of coverage of pregnant women under the Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana and Poshan Abhiyaan; (b) whether any special nutrition packages are provided to adolescents and expectant mothers in tribal regions, if so, the details thereof; (c) the details of the monitoring mechanisms to ensure proper utilisation at the Anganwadi Centres; (d) whether Anganwadi workers are adequately trained/equipped to monitor maternal health, if so, the details thereof; and (e) the details of the steps being taken to reduce anaemia and low birth weight among tribal mothers? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT (SHRIMATI SAVITRI THAKUR) (a) Under Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY), maternity benefits have been provided to more than 4.05 crore beneficiaries since inception of the scheme (01.01.2017) till 31.07.2025. Also, as of July, 2025, more than 72.22 lakh pregnant women are registered as beneficiaries under Mission Poshan 2.0 as per the data available on Poshan Tracker. (b) to (e) Under National Health Mission (NHM), Government of India has undertaken the followings steps to provide maternal health services including the reduction of prevalence of anaemia and low birth weight babies among the mothers, including tribal mothers, for all States/UTs across the country:  Surakshit Matritva Aashwasan (SUMAN) provides assured, dignified, respectful and quality healthcare at no cost and zero tolerance for denial of services for every woman and newborn visiting public health facilities to end all preventable maternal and newborn deaths. Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakram (JSSK) entitles every pregnant woman to free delivery, including caesarean section, in public health institutions along with the provision of free transportation, diagnostics, medicines, blood, other consumables and diet.  Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan (PMSMA) provides pregnant women a fixed day, free of cost assured and quality antenatal check up by an Obstetrician/Specialist/Medical Officer on the 9th day of every month.  Extended PMSMA strategy ensures quality ANC to pregnant women, especially to high-risk pregnancy (HRP) women and individual HRP tracking till a safe delivery is achieved by means of financial incentivization for the identified high risk pregnant women and accompanying ASHA for extra 3 visits over and above the PMSMA visit.  Optimizing Postnatal Care aims to strengthen the quality of post-natal care by laying emphasis on detection of danger signs in mothers and incentivization of ASHAs for prompt detection, referral & treatment of such high-risk postpartum mothers.  Monthly Village Health, Sanitation and Nutrition Day (VHSND) an outreach activity at Anganwadi centres ensures provision of maternal and childcare including nutrition in convergence with the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS).  Iron and Folic Acid (IFA) supplementation and Deworming – One IFA tablets each day for 6-month period are given to pregnant women after IST trimester & post-natal mothers after delivery and single dose of albendazole tablet (400 mg) is distributed to pregnant women after first trimester to reduce the incidence of anaemia.  Mother and Child Protection (MCP) Card and Safe Motherhood Booklet are distributed to the pregnant women for educating them on diet, rest, danger signs of pregnancy, benefit schemes and institutional deliveries.  Anemia Mukt Bharat (AMB) strategy is implemented to reduce prevalence of anemia among children and women including pregnant women and lactating mothers in life cycle approach through implementation of six interventions (Prophylactic Iron and Folic Acid supplementation (IFA Red tablets (daily for 180 days) are provided to pregnant women), Deworming (Pregnant women are provided albendazole tablet in second trimester), Intensified Behavioral Change Communication campaign, Testing for anemia and treatment as per management protocols, mandatory provision of IFA fortified food in public health programmes and addressing non nutritional causes of anemia especially malaria, fluorosis and hemoglobinopathies) via robust institutional mechanism. Under the 15th Finance Commission, various components like Anganwadi services, Poshan Abhiyaan and Scheme for Adolescent girls (14-18 years in Aspirational Districts 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. Under Mission Poshan 2.0, Supplementary Nutrition is one of the six services provided through the platform of Anganwadi Centres and is provided to Children (6 months to 6 years), Pregnant Women, Lactating Mothers and Adolescent Girls (14 to 18 years in Aspirational Districts of States and North Eastern Region) for 300 days in a year to beat the intergenerational cycle of malnutrition by adopting a life cycle approach.Supplementary nutrition containing 600 calories, 18-20 gms. of protein and micronutrients is provided in the form of Take-Home Ration (THR) for maximum of 300 days in a year to pregnant women and Adolescent girls. IT systems have been leveraged to strengthen and bring about transparency in nutrition delivery support systems at the Anganwadi Centres. The ‘Poshan Tracker’ (PT) application was rolled out on 1st March 2021 as an important governance tool. The Poshan Tracker facilitates monitoring and tracking of all AWCs, AWWs and beneficiaries on defined indicators. Technology under Poshan Tracker is being leveraged for dynamic identification of stunting, wasting, under-weight prevalence among children. It has facilitated near real time data collection for Anganwadi Services such as, daily attendance, ECCE, Provision of Hot Cooked Meal (HCM)/Take Home Ration (THR-not raw ration), Growth Measurement etc. The data entered by Anganwadi Workers in the Poshan Tracker is reflected at dashboard at all administrative levels, for better monitoring and increased effectiveness of the program. It is available in 24 languages. SMS is being sent to beneficiaries upon registration and on delivery of THR for increased transparency. For last mile tracking of Service Delivery, MWCD has developed Facial Recognition System (FRS) for the distribution of Take-Home Ration to ensure that benefit is given to the intended beneficiary registered in Poshan Tracker. Further, existing beneficiaries can also view the facilities availed by them in the Beneficiary module. The PT App also offers counselling videos on key behaviour and services which help disseminate messages on birth preparedness, delivery, post-natal care, breastfeeding, and complementary feeding. For last-mile tracking of delivery of nutrition, Ministry of Women & Child Development has developed Facial Recognition System (FRS) for the distribution of Take Home Ration to ensure that benefit is given only to the intended beneficiary registered in Poshan Tracker. FRS has been implemented for strengthening accountability of field functionaries and empowering eligible beneficiaries to receive their rightful entitlements. The FRS has been made mandatory for the distribution of THR from 1 July, 2025. Further, to facilitate grievance redressal to citizens/beneficiaries under mission Saksham Anganwadi & Poshan 2.0, PM CARES & PMMVY, the Ministry has established a multi-lingual toll-free Helpline No. 14408. The pending status of grievances is also visible to District & State level Officers in their respective login of Poshan Tracker. Grievances received on the Poshan helpline are resolved by Call Center Executive or transferred to the AWW/ Supervisor/ CDPO concerned for redressal. These grievances can be seen and resolved by AWWs in Poshan Tracker application and in dashboard by Supervisors and CDPOs. The Ministry is also conducting capacity building under Poshan Bhi Padhai Bhi initiative, involving a cascading model of training, wherein Master Trainers (namely, District Officers, Block Coordinators and Supervisors) are trained through Savitribai Phule National Institute of Women and Child Development (SPNIWCD), and the master trainers would directly train all Anganwadi Workers in the field. Further, NeGD is regularly conducting field level trainings/workshops directly for Anganwadi Workersregarding use of the Poshan Tracker Application. Multiple rounds of training have been held both virtually and physically, in various districts across the country. As on 31.07.2025, 41,402 SLMTs (CDPOs, Supervisors and Additional Resource Persons) and 5,81,326 AWWs have been trained across the country under Poshan Bhi Padhai Bhi programme. The PM JANMAN Mission launched by Ministry of Tribal Affairs aims for targeted development of 75 Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) residing in 18 States and a UT. This Mission focuses on 11 critical interventions related to 9 key Ministries including Ministry of Women and Child Development. As on date, a total of 2500 AWCs have been approved for construction under PM JANMAN across the country. Ministry of Tribal Affairs has launched Dharti Aaba Janjati Gram Unnat Abhiyan (DAJGUA) aimed at improving the socio-economic condition of tribal communities by adopting saturation coverage of tribal families in tribal majority areas and aspirational block ST villages. The intervention of Ministry of Women and Child Development involves establishment of 2000 new Saksham AWCs and upgradation of 6000 existing AWCs into Saksham AWCs from FY 2024-25 to FY 2028-29. *****