Data recorded in the Poshan (Nutrition) Tracker have not been made public in the interest of privacy of women and children, the Government told Parliament last week.
“The data that we deal with within the Poshan Tracker, to maintain the privacy of women and children in our country, especially the minor children whose data should not be publicly made available, is an issue which is close to my heart. My pledge is to honour the privacy of women and children who are serviced by the Government of India in collaboration with State Governments across the anganwadi systems in the country,” Smriti Irani, Minister for Women and Child Development, told the Lok Sabha on Friday.
The Minister was responding to a question from YSRCP MP Goddeti Madhavi on why nutrition indicators recorded in the tracker were not in public domain.
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The tracker is one of the important pillars of the Poshan Abhiyan and helps the Government monitor services delivered at 12.3 lakh anganwadi centres and record nutritional indicators of 9.8 lakh beneficiaries, including children in the age of six months to six years as well as pregnant women and lactating mothers. Anganwadis provide six services, which include supplementary nutrition in the form of hot-cooked meals and take home ration, immunisation and pre-school education.
The Government has spent ₹1,053 crore to develop the tracker. Of the total, ₹600 crore was spent on procurement of smartphones, followed by ₹203.96 crore on smartphone recharge and maintenance, ₹180.68 crore on incentives to anganwadi workers and helpers for using the technology and ₹68 crore on training. These details were provided by the Ministry of Women and Child Development to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports which tabled its report recently.
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On its Poshan Tracker website (https://poshantracker.in/), the Government hosts a dashboard which provides only limited administrative details at national, State and district level. This includes total attendance on a given day, vaccinations, take home ration and hot cooked meals delivered. But it provides no information on the nutrition status of the beneficiaries such as stunting and wasting among children or prevalence of anaemia.
The parliamentary committee in its report raised several questions on the effective use of the Poshan Tracker. It sought that key performance indicators be constantly monitored and uploaded on its website and a State-wise progress report be maintained “so that identification of those deprived of the benefits can be made on a real-time basis for timely remedial measures.” The committee also recommended that the Ministry put in place a monitoring mechanism to ensure there were no gaps in distribution of food packets to anganwadi beneficiaries.