Lok Sabha Question No. 3309 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2025-08-08
Subject: Welfare of Women and Adolescents
Ministry: WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: Adv Gowaal Kagada Padavi

## 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;
2. (b) whether  any  special  nutrition  packages  are  provided  to  adolescents  and expectant mothers in tribal regions, if so, the details thereof;
3. (c) the details of the monitoring mechanisms to ensure proper utilisation at the Anganwadi Centres;
4. (d) whether  Anganwadi  workers  are  adequately  trained/equipped  to  monitor maternal health, if so, the details thereof; and
5. (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 15 th  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 1 st  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 Workers regarding 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.

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