Lok Sabha Question No. 3582 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2026-03-13
Subject: Funds Allocation to Flagship Schemes
Ministry: WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: Dr. D. Purandeswari

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT

LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3582 TO BE ANSWERED ON 13.03.2026

## FUNDS ALLOCATION TO FLAGSHIP SCHEMES

## 3582.  DR. D. PURANDESWARI:

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

- (a) the Union Budget allocations to the Ministry of Women and Child Development during the last four financial years, including the 2026-27 allocation;
- (b) the details of the proportion of funds dedicated to flagship schemes such as Saksham Anganwadi  and  POSHAN 2.0,  covering  nutrition  support,  early  childhood  care  and adolescent girls;
- (c) the details of the actual expenditure incurred, fund utilisation rates and spending as a percentage of GDP during the said period, year-wise;
- (d) whether measures implemented to ensure increased budgetary support leads to improved nutritional  outcomes,  enhanced  child  development  indicators  and  greater  women's empowerment, if so, the details thereof; and
- (e) the  details  of  the  monitoring  and  evaluation  mechanisms  in  place  to  track  progress, ensure accountability and assess results of these schemes?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT (SHRIMATI ANNPURNA DEVI)

(a) to (b) The Union Budget allocations to the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) along with details of the proportion of funds dedicated to flagship schemes such as Mission Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0, covering nutrition support, early childhood care and adolescent girls,  for the last four years, including the 2026-27, are given as below:

|      | Total            | budget           | Budget            | allocated                  | % of share of % Saksham   | (Rs. in crore) of share of   |
|------|------------------|------------------|-------------------|----------------------------|---------------------------|------------------------------|
| Year | allocated toMWCD | allocated toMWCD | Mission Anganwadi | Saksham and Poshan Saksham | Anganwadi &               | Anganwadi &                  |
|      | Budget           | Revised          | Budget            | Revised                    | allocated to RE           | allocated to                 |
|      | Estimates        | Estimates        | Estimates         | Estimates (4)              | MWCD (5) = (3)/(1)        | MWCD (6) = (4)/(2)           |
|      | (1)              | (2)              | (3)               |                            |                           |                              |

| 2022- 23   |   25172.28 | 23912.69   |   20263.07 | 20263.07   | 80.49%   | 84.73%   |
|------------|------------|------------|------------|------------|----------|----------|
| 2023- 24   |    25448.8 | 25448.68   |    20554.3 | 21523.13   | 80.76%   | 84.57%   |
| 2024- 25   |    26092.2 | 24588.30   |    21200   | 21035.12   | 81.25%   | 85.55%   |
| 2025- 26   |    26889.7 | 24373.91   |    21960   | 20949.47   | 81.66%   | 85.95%   |
| 2026- 27   |    28183.1 | -          |    23100   | -          | 81.96%   |          |

(c)  the  details  of  the  actual  expenditure  incurred,  fund  utilisation  rates  and  spending  as  a percentage of GDP for the last four year is given below:-

|          |                                 |                                          |                         | (Rs. in crore)                                    | (Rs. in crore)   |
|----------|---------------------------------|------------------------------------------|-------------------------|---------------------------------------------------|------------------|
| Year     | Actual Expenditure ofMWCD w.r.t | Fund utilisation rates Revised Estimates | GDP at current prices # | % of Expenditure/ Spending of w.r.t GDP (approx.) | Actual MWCD      |
|          | (1)                             | (2)                                      | (3)                     | (4) = (1)/(3)                                     | (4) = (1)/(3)    |
| 2022- 23 | 23512.07                        | 98.32%                                   | 26117627                | 0.09%                                             |                  |
| 2023- 24 | 25018.46                        | 98.31%                                   | 28983909                | 0.09%                                             |                  |
| 2024- 25 | 24529.48                        | 99.76%                                   | 31807309 (*FRE)         | 0.08%                                             |                  |
| 2025- 26 | 15490.92 (as on 11.03.2026)     | 63.56%                                   | 34547157 (*SAE)         |                                                   | 0.04%            |

(d)  The Government gives utmost priority to the safety, security, health, education, nutrition and empowerment of women and children and has adopted multi-pronged approach to address their educational, social and economic empowerment across the country.

Under Mission Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0, a package of six services are provided to the eligible beneficiaries i.e Supplementary Nutrition (SNP), Pre-school Non-formal Education,  Nutrition  &  Health  Education,  Immunization,  Health  Check-up,  and  Referral Services. Three of the six services, viz., Immunization, Health check-up and Referral Services are related to health and are provided through National Health Mission (NHM) & Public Health Infrastructure.

Under the Mission Shakti aims at strengthening interventions for women safety, security and empowerment. Mission Shakti comprises of two verticals 'Sambal' for safety and security of women and 'Samarthya' for empowerment of women. Mission Shakti is Central ly Sponsored Scheme.

Further, schemes of this Ministry are Centrally Sponsored schemes. Central  Government is responsible for the overall planning and policy under the schemes whereas their day to day implementation falls under the ambit of State Government or UT administration.

(e)         To  address  the  challenge  of  malnutrition,  the  Ministry  is  implementing  Mission Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0. Under the umbrella Mission Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 which is also known as Mission Poshan 2.0, various component of Anganwadi services,  Poshan  Abhiyaan  and  Scheme  for  Adolescent  girls  (14-18  years,  in  Aspirational Districts and North-Eastern region) have been subsumed. It is a Centrally Sponsored Mission, where the responsibility for implementation of various activities lies with the States and UTs. This Mission covers Children under 6 years of age, pregnant women, lactating mothers till 6 months after childbirth and adolescent girls (14-18 years of age) in Northeastern States and Aspirational Districts of the country. The Mission is being implemented in all States/UTs in the country.

The 'Poshan Tracker' application was rolled out as an important governance tool. The Poshan Tracker facilitates monitoring and tracking of all Anganwadi Centers (AWCs), Anganwadi Workers (AWWs) and beneficiaries on defined indicators. Technology under Poshan Tracker is  being  leveraged  for  dynamic  identification  of  stunting,  wasting,  underweight  prevalence among children. It has facilitated near real time data collection for Anganwadi Services such as,  opening  of  AWCs,  daily  attendance  of  children,  Early  Childhood  Care  and  Education (ECCE)  activities, Growth  Monitoring of children, Provision of Hot  Cooked  Meal (HCM)/Take Home Ration (THR-not raw ration), Growth Measurement etc. The application also offers counselling videos on key behaviours and services which help disseminate messages on  birth  preparedness,  delivery  of  child,  post-natal  care,  breastfeeding  and  complementary feeding. Regular field level trainings/workshops are conducted directly for AWWs regarding use of the Poshan Tracker Application. Poshan Tracker also features self-learning videos for AWWs,  enabling  continuous  capacity  building  and  on-the-job  learning  through  digital modules.

For  last  mile  tracking  of  Service  Delivery,  Ministry  of  Women  and  Child  Development (MWCD) has developed Facial Recognition System (FRS) in Poshan Tracker Application for distribution  of  TakeHome  Ration  to  ensure  that  benefit  is  given  only  to  the  intended beneficiary registered in Poshan Tracker.

The Nominee Module has been introduced in Poshan Tracker to ensure uninterrupted delivery of Take-Home Ration (THR) to the beneficiaries; Pregnant Women, Lactating Mothers, and Adolescent  Girls.  If  due  to  any  reason,  the  registered  beneficiary  is  unable  to  visit  the Anganwadi Centre to receive their THR through FRS, she can nominate a nominee on her behalf to receive her THR. Nominee has to undergo e-KYC only ONCE. But face matching will be done every time for receiving THR on behalf of the beneficiary. Even after addition of the nominee, beneficiary can still receive the THR at the Anganwadi Center if the nominee has not received it already.

Further, once in a year, the Programme Approval Board (PAB) monitors with States and UTs, the progress of activities under the scheme and reviews status of achievement of objectives, effective delivery of services to women and children.  Apart from this, officials of the Ministry continuously review the scheme through meetings, video conferencing and by making field visits to States/UTs from time to time. There exists a well-structured mechanism for effective implementation of the schemes and the monitoring for effective delivery of services to the beneficiaries.

Moreover, A third party evaluation (2019-24) of the schemes of the Ministry was conducted by NITI Aayog and found the schemes as satisfactory from the point of view of relevance, effectiveness & sustainability.

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