Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 Scheme provides package of services in an integrated manner

The Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 Scheme provides the following package of services in an integrated manner to eligible beneficiaries:

1. Supplementary nutrition.
2. Pre-school non-formal education.
3. Nutrition and health education.
4. Immunization.
5. Health check-up.
6. 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) and Public Health Infrastructure.

Under Mission Poshan 2.0, a new strategy has been adopted for reduction in malnutrition and for improved health, wellness and immunity of children. It includes approaches like community engagement, outreach, behavioural change and advocacy. It focuses on Maternal Nutrition, Infant and Young Child Feeding Norms, treatment of Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM)/ Moderate Acute Malnutrition (MAM) and wellness through AYUSH practices to reduce prevalence of wasting, stunting, anemia and being underweight.

Supplementary Nutrition is provided to Children (6 months to 6 years), Pregnant Women, Lactating Mothers and Adolescent Girls in accordance with the nutrition norms contained in Schedule-II of the National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013. These norms have been revised in January 2023. Revised norms are more comprehensive and balanced in terms of both quantity and quality of supplementary nutrition. It is based on the principles of diet diversity that provides for quality protein, healthy fats and micronutrients (Calcium, Zinc, Iron, Dietary Folate, Vitamin A, Vitamin-B6 and Vitamin B-12). Extra Supplementary Nutrition is provided to SAM children.

Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) launched the Poshan Bhi Padhai Bhi (PBPB) initiative under Mission Saksham Anganwadi and POSHAN 2.0. PBPB aims at improving the quality of Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) through the Anganwadi system by equipping Anganwadi Centres (AWCs) with high-quality infrastructure, play equipment, and well-trained Anganwadi Workers (AWWs).

Capacity building of AWWs has been envisioned as the first step towards improving the quality of ECCE. Under the capacity building programme of PBPB, 10,58,168 AWWs have been trained as on 27^th March 2026 in ECCE pedagogy and delivery of nutritional services. Under PBPB, allocation for Pre-school Education (PSE) Kits has been increased to ₹3,000 per AWC per year for providing adequate PSE kits at the AWCs. In order to improve the quality of ECCE, Government launched in March 2024, Navchetana - a National Framework for Early Childhood Stimulation for children up to 3 years of age, and Aadharshila - National Curriculum for ECCE for children of 3 to 6 years age. Navchetana framework empowers caregivers and AWWs for holistic early stimulation of children through responsive caregiving. Aadharshila improves the quality of early childhood education transacted at AWCs by prioritizing play-based activities covering all learning domains.

Government has so far upgraded 1,03,940 Anganwadi Centres (AWCs) into Saksham Anganwadi Centres for better delivery of nutrition and increased focus on Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) services to the beneficiaries.

In order to leverage information technology to strengthen and bring about transparency in nutrition delivery support systems at the AWCs, Government has rolled out 'Poshan Tracker' e-Governance portal on 1^stMarch 2021. Poshan Tracker enables capturing of the real time data of the Mission. All AWWs are provided with smart phones along with Internet connectivity to ensure smooth and uninterrupted data entry. The Poshan Tracker facilitates monitoring and tracking of all AWCs, Anganwadi Workers (AWWs) and beneficiaries on defined indicators. Poshan Tracker based applications are being leveraged for dynamic identification of stunting, wasting, under-weight prevalence among children.

Provision of Growth Monitoring Devices (GMDs) have also been made at each AWC for the growth monitoring of registered beneficiaries.

Further, for last mile tracking of Service Delivery, Facial Recognition System (FRS) has been developed using Poshan Tracker for distribution of Take-Home Ration (THR) to ensure that benefit is given only to the intended and identified beneficiary registered on Poshan Tracker. The Nominee Module has been introduced in Poshan Tracker to ensure uninterrupted delivery of THR to all the beneficiaries.

Poshan Tracker is being used for delivery of ECCE at AWCs. Daily learning prompts are delivered to AWWs through Poshan Tracker in the form of over 249 videos, 190 voice notes and 159 unique ECCE activity PDFs for children aged 3-6 years. For children aged 0-3 years, 14 videos comprising 140 activities of early childhood stimulation have been developed to support structured home visits and caregiver engagement.

At present, Ministry of Women and Child Development does not propose skill development and entrepreneurship programs for women through Anganwadi and Self-Help Groups.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Women and Child Development Smt. Savitri Thakur in Rajya Sabha in reply to a question.

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