Starting July 1, 2025, the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development (MoWCD) has officially made facial recognition system (FRS) mandatory for pregnant and lactating women to access take-home rations (THR) under the scheme POSHAN Abhiyaan, sparking concerns over potential exclusions and operational hurdles.
The government has updated the POSHAN Tracker mobile application to make sure the order is implemented, removing the previously available option to ‘skip’ the step for facial recognition. On June 30, Anganwadi workers across the country received messages instructing them to uninstall and reinstall the application to activate the new version.
The THR programme aims to improve the nutritional status of children aged 6 to 36 months, pregnant women and lactating mothers, as a part of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme. The application is used by Anganwadi workers (AWW) to upload data on stunting, wasting, and under-weight prevalence among children and last-mile tracking of nutrition service delivery.
The order regarding mandatory facial recognition, which was issued on May 30, also stated that children between the age group of 3-6 years, who are entitled to cooked meals and pre-school education at Anganwadi Centres (AWC), will now compulsorily have to submit to a ‘liveliness’ detection. Liveliness detection is used in biometric authentication systems to verify that the person providing biometric data is a live, real person and not a fake representation, such as a photo or video.
While the ministry claimed the update would curb corruption and improve transparency and accountability, AWWs and food rights advocates flagged a growing number of problems with these “digital solutions”, especially for the most vulnerable women and children.
The All India Federation of Anganwadi Workers and Helpers (AIFAWH) demanded an immediate rollback of the mandatory FRS, calling it a violation of the National Food Security Act.
Many women in rural India lack personal phones and their Aadhaar-linked numbers are often outdated or belonging to male relatives. Mandatory facial recognition under such conditions risks excluding the very people the scheme is meant to serve. This is compounded by slow network speeds, failed facial scans and frequent server crashes.
An Anganwadi worker and teacher from South East Delhi said they had been using the system for the past five months, following the Delhi government elections and the change in administration.
The two-way authentication process involves entering the Aadhaar number, then a one-time password (OTP) and then capturing a photo. The same process is to be repeated every time the THR is supplied.
“OTP must come on the mobile number given on Aadhaar card but most times the phone is not with the female beneficiary,” the worker told Down To Earth (DTE) on the condition of anonymity.
The challenges don’t stop there. “Facial recognition often doesn’t work on the first try or there’s a technical glitch. The app just keeps buffering. We end up retrying several times and requesting new OTPs. If the phone is with the husband, he gets irritated or is at work and can’t take calls. People are also rightfully cautious these days about sharing OTPs because of scams,” the worker added
In some cases, beneficiaries had lost access to their registered mobile numbers or devices, making it impossible to complete even the mandatory e-KYC. “We keep asking them to update their number at the Aadhaar camp, but they don’t go. In my area, 25 people are facing these issues. I’ve submitted a list to our seniors,” she said.
Experts pointed out that in areas with low internet penetration, particularly remote or tribal regions where malnutrition is most prevalent, such one-size-fits-all digital systems will only deepen exclusion.
Such exclusions have also been seen earlier in access of ration under the public delivery system (PDS), access of wages under MGNREGA and access of pension.
“The move will slowly reduce the number of beneficiaries, which can then be used to justify further budget cuts to such programmes,” said Aysha, convenor, Right to Food campaign.
Previous letters by the MoCWD to state governments have already warned that the failure to comply with the two-way authentication process will affect the revision of cost norms of the nutrition, AIFAWH general secretary AR Sindhu informed.
“As there’s an indirect threat of grant stoppage from the Centre, state women and child development officials, including district programme officers, child development project officer and supervisors, are harassing Anganwadi workers and threatening them with retrenchment if FRS fails for any reason,” she added.
In Lok Sabha’s Budget session in March, Congress Member of Parliament Sasikanth Senthil had raised the issue in parliament about how FRS was complicating issues. Calling it “denial India”, he urged the government to stop FRS.
An Anganwadi supervisor said that pregnant or lactating women often could not visit AWCs, so workers were compelled to go door to door to complete the process. “But that’s only possible in some cases, not every time,” she said.
Another Anganwadi worker told DTE that the facial recognition system and mandatory e-KYC were severely disrupting their ability to meet daily targets. “Sometimes it takes 20 minutes just to process one person. Our entire time goes into this. We have to teach children too. We can’t even cover all the people in our area in 30 days,” she said.
In a letter to Union WCD Minister Annapurna Devi, AIFAWH reported alarming incidents, including a violent assault on an Anganwadi worker in Uttar Pradesh’s Shahjahanpur district.
On June 19, 2025 the worker was beaten with a stick by a beneficiary’s husband while attempting to complete the e-KYC process. She was hospitalised with severe injuries and reportedly remained unconscious for a day. “We are receiving similar reports of attacks and harassment of Anganwadi workers by beneficiaries, as well as incidents of haemorrhages and heart attacks due to pressure from officials who themselves are under pressure from your ministry,” AIFAWH wrote in the letter to Devi.
The federation also demanded that every AWC be equipped with computers, laptops, tablets or mobile phones with 4G/5G and free Wi-Fi. AIFAWH announced a nationwide strike on July 9, 2025 to press for its demands.