Lok Sabha Question No. 3840 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-08-11
Subject: Beneficiaries of POSHAN Abhiyaan
Ministry: WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: Bhagirath Chaudhary

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3840

TO BE ANSWERED ON 11.08.2023

## BENEFICIARIES OF POSHAN ABHIYAAN

## 3840   SHRI BHAGIRATH CHOUDHARY:

Will the Minister of WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT be pleased to state:

- (a) the date on which the POSHAN Abhiyaan was launched;
- (b) the process for registration of beneficiaries under the scheme;
- (c) whether any criteria has been fixed for the beneficiaries of the said abhiyaan and if so the details thereof;
- (d) the number of eligible people benefited under the said Abhiyaan since its launch to December 2022, State and year-wise; and
- (e) the number of beneficiaries and amount under the said Abhiyaan from the year 2019-20 to 2023-24 in Rajasthan?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT (SHRIMATI SMRITI ZUBIN IRANI)

(a) to (c)      POSHAN Abhiyaan was launched on the 8 th  of March 2018 by the Hon'ble Prime Minister to achieve improvement in nutritional status of Children from 0-6 years, Adolescent Girls, Pregnant Women and Lactating Mothers in a time bound manner. In order to avail the services under the scheme the beneficiary needs to be enrolled at the Anganwadi  Centre.  As  on  date  approximately,  10.11  crore  beneficiaries  have  been registered under the scheme on the ICT application Poshan Tracker and approximately 94% have been Aadhar verified.  Poshan  Abhiyan  is  part  of  the  Integrated  Nutrition Support Programme, Mission Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0, which includes Anganwadi Services and Scheme for Adolescent Girls.

Anganwadi Services is a universal and self- selecting scheme. In order to avail the services under the Mission, Aadhar is mandatory. However, if a child's Aadhar card is not available, then the benefits under the scheme can be accessed using the mother's Aadhaar card. Anganwadi Services scheme is being digitized by the Ministry through the Poshan Tracker App to enable the Ministry to identify the beneficiaries as part of the programme as a whole and to ensure uninterrupted supply of nutrition to the children, Pregnant Women and Lactating mothers and adolescents girl beneficiaries, who move within the State or outside the state due to any reason. A migration module for shifting from one AWC to another has been provided in Poshan Tracker to facilitate service delivery to migrant beneficiaries.

(d) The State/UT wise number of beneficiaries registered on Poshan Tracker as on

December 2022 is at Annexure I.

Further,  under  Poshan  Abhiyan,  an  important  focus  has  been  on  'Behaviour Change Communication' or BCC through Community Based Events (CBEs) and Jan Andolans  in  the  form  of  Rashtriya  Poshan  Maahs  and  Poshan  Pakhwadas.  The CBEs  serve  as  a  platform  for  disseminating  essential  messages  and  to  counsel pregnant  and  lactating  women,  and  their  influencers  (husbands/mothers-in-law)  on appropriate  nutrition  and  health  behaviour.  Close  to  3.70  crore  CBEs  have  been conducted under the Abhiyaan, in the last four years Further, since the launch of the Abhiyan, more than 60 crore Jan Andolan activities have been carried out which include involvement  of  local  level  communities,  panchayats  and  convergence  with  key Ministries and departments upto grassroot.

(e) As  on  31.07.2023,  total  46,36,094  beneficiaries  are  registered  on  Poshan Tracker in the State of Rajasthan.  Further, an amount of Rs. 10005.28 lakh has been released to the state for implementation of various activities under the Abhiyaan for the period from 2019-20 to 2023-24.

*****

| State/UT                           |   Total Beneficiaries |
|------------------------------------|-----------------------|
| Andaman & Nicobar Islands          |                 15633 |
| Andhra Pradesh                     |               2855118 |
| Arunachal Pradesh                  |                 56671 |
| Assam                              |               3595187 |
| Bihar                              |              10382035 |
| Chhattisgarh                       |               2511279 |
| Dadra & Nagar Haveli - Daman & Diu |                 33801 |
| Delhi                              |                733192 |
| Goa                                |                 72628 |
| Gujarat                            |               3927405 |
| Haryana                            |               1987706 |
| Himachal Pradesh                   |                532741 |
| J&K                                |                809032 |
| Jharkhand                          |               3630024 |
| Karnataka                          |               4347107 |
| Kerala                             |               2424718 |
| Ladakh                             |                 19735 |
| Lakshadweep                        |                  6579 |
| Madhya Pradesh                     |               7410406 |
| Maharashtra                        |               7171793 |
| Manipur                            |                304927 |
| Meghalaya                          |                450690 |
| Mizoram                            |                122360 |
| Nagaland                           |                 65212 |
| Odisha                             |               4101136 |
| Puducherry                         |                 40093 |
| Punjab                             |               1121619 |
| Rajasthan                          |               4877364 |
| Sikkim                             |                 35864 |
| Tamil Nadu                         |               3917175 |
| Telangana                          |               2201186 |
| Tripura                            |                361715 |
| UT-Chandigarh                      |                 53364 |
| Uttar Pradesh                      |              21105303 |
| Uttarakhand                        |                824519 |
| West Bengal                        |               8945146 |
| Total                              |             101050463 |

## Annexure I