SRINAGAR: The Ministry of Women and Child Development has approved the upgradation of 2,00,000 Anganwadi Centres across the country into Saksham Anganwadis under Mission Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0, with Jammu and Kashmir among the Union Territories included in the modernisation programme.
The details were shared by Minister of State for Women and Child Development, Savitri Thakur, in a written reply to an unstarred question in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.
According to the ministry, 338 Anganwadi Centres in Jammu and Kashmir have been approved for upgradation under the scheme. Madhya Pradesh has the highest number of approved centres at 24,662, followed by Uttar Pradesh with 23,697, Karnataka with 17,732 and Jharkhand with 16,775.
The ministry said a third-party evaluation and impact assessment of Mission Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 was conducted by NITI Aayog in 2020 and 2025, with the scheme found to be relevant for addressing malnutrition in the country.
The government informed Parliament that the ‘Poshan Tracker’ digital application has been introduced as a governance tool for real-time monitoring of Anganwadi Centres, Anganwadi Workers and beneficiaries under Mission Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0.
The platform enables monitoring of various Anganwadi services, including centre operations, daily attendance of children, Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) activities, growth monitoring of children, provision of Hot Cooked Meals (HCM), Take-Home Ration (THR) and growth measurements.
The ministry said the Poshan Tracker has helped improve beneficiary identification through Aadhaar-based verification and prevent leakages and duplicate entries. As per the Poshan Tracker dashboard, 99.88 per cent of registered beneficiaries have been Aadhaar verified.
To strengthen last-mile delivery, the ministry has developed a Facial Recognition System (FRS) in the Poshan Tracker application for distribution of Take-Home Ration to ensure that benefits reach the intended beneficiaries.
The government also informed that a Nominee Module has been introduced in the Poshan Tracker to help beneficiaries receive THR without disruption if they are unable to visit Anganwadi Centres themselves. Under the system, nominees are required to complete e-KYC once, while face matching is carried out each time they collect THR on behalf of the beneficiary.
The ministry stated that Mission Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 is a universal scheme without entry barriers, and beneficiaries willing to complete the required e-KYC process are entitled to receive services under the programme.
