Mission Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0

What is Mission Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0?

Mission Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 is the Ministry of Women and Child Development's integrated nutrition support programme, delivered through India's network of Anganwadi centres. According to the Ministry, the Anganwadi Services scheme, launched in 1975 as the Integrated Child Development Services, has been revised and subsumed under Mission Poshan 2.0.

Mission Poshan 2.0 brings together three schemes: Anganwadi Services, Poshan Abhiyaan launched by the Prime Minister on 8 March 2018, and the Scheme for Adolescent Girls. It provides nutritional support for children below six years of age, pregnant women and lactating mothers, and adolescent girls aged 14 to 18 in Aspirational Districts and all districts of the North Eastern region, while also covering Early Childhood Care and Education for children aged 3 to 6 and the upgrading of Anganwadi infrastructure into Saksham Anganwadis.

The Ministry describes Mission Poshan 2.0 as one of the world's largest programmes for early childhood care and development. The Central Government is responsible for policy and planning; state governments handle day-to-day implementation.

The Anganwadi Services package: six services

• Supplementary nutrition
• Pre-school non-formal education
• Nutrition and health education
• Immunisation
• Health check-up
• Referral services

Three of these six: immunisation, health check-up and referral services, are delivered through the National Health Mission and public health infrastructure rather than by the Anganwadi worker alone.

Who is eligible for Mission Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0?

You can register if:

• You are a child aged 6 months to 6 years living in the area served by an Anganwadi centre.
• You are a pregnant woman or a lactating mother.
• You are a severely malnourished child aged 6 to 72 months, who receives the enhanced nutrition norm.
• You are an adolescent girl aged 14 to 18 years living in an Aspirational District or in a district of the North Eastern region.
• You have registered at the Anganwadi centre serving your locality. The guidelines state that only beneficiaries registered at the AWC are entitled to receive supplementary nutrition.

You cannot apply if:

• You are an adolescent girl aged 14 to 18 outside an Aspirational District or the North Eastern region, the Scheme for Adolescent Girls component is targeted to those areas only.
• You are an adolescent girl below 14 or above 18; the age band under Poshan 2.0 is 14 to 18 years.
• You are a child aged over six years, school-going children are covered by PM POSHAN under the Ministry of Education, not by Poshan 2.0.
• You have not registered at an Anganwadi centre. Registration, not residence alone, creates the entitlement.
• You are seeking a cash transfer. Poshan 2.0 delivers food, services and education, not DBT to the beneficiary.

What nutrition does Poshan 2.0 provide?

The scheme guidelines set both nutritional norms and cost norms per beneficiary per day.

The guidelines carry a note that the nutritional norms are under revision and will be notified shortly, so treat the calorie and protein figures as the currently notified position rather than a final one.

How the food is delivered

• Take-Home Ration (THR) goes to pregnant women and lactating mothers, children aged 6 to 36 months, severely malnourished children and eligible adolescent girls.
• Hot Cooked Meal (HCM) plus a morning snack goes to children aged 3 to 6 years at the Anganwadi centre where they are registered.
• Adolescent girls receive THR for 300 days in a year, fortified with micronutrients and labelled by age group so it is consumed by the intended beneficiary.
• Recipes must use locally available ingredients and take account of local taste preferences, with diet diversity including fortified rice and millets.

What documents are required to register at an Anganwadi centre?

How to apply for Poshan 2.0 benefits at an Anganwadi centre

There is no online application form for Poshan 2.0. Registration is done in person by the Anganwadi Worker, and the record is created on the Poshan Tracker, the Ministry's real-time monitoring application.

1. Find the Anganwadi centre that serves your locality. Every AWC has an 11-digit code recorded on the Poshan Tracker; the ward member, ASHA worker or Gram Panchayat office can tell you which centre covers your address.
2. Visit the centre with the beneficiary's details: Aadhaar of the mother or guardian, the child's date of birth, and the Mother and Child Protection card if you have one.
3. Ask the Anganwadi Worker to register the beneficiary on the Poshan Tracker under the correct category — child 6 to 36 months, child 3 to 6 years, pregnant woman, lactating mother, or adolescent girl 14 to 18.
4. Confirm your entitlement at registration. The guidelines require the worker to inform the beneficiary of the entitlement, the periodicity of Take-Home Ration distribution and the timing of the Hot Cooked Meal at the centre.
5. Attend growth monitoring sessions so that height and weight are recorded on the Poshan Tracker. This is how a child is identified as severely malnourished and moved to the higher Rs 12 per day norm.
6. Collect the ration or send the child for the meal on the schedule the centre announces, and use the AWC for immunisation, health check-up and referral services delivered in convergence with the National Health Mission.

How much does the government spend per Anganwadi centre?

Beyond supplementary nutrition, the scheme guidelines set out the recurring and one-time norms for running an Anganwadi centre:

How is Poshan 2.0 funded and monitored?

Poshan 2.0 is a centrally sponsored programme implemented through state governments and union territory administrations on a cost-sharing basis:

Salary support under the Anganwadi Services scheme is allowed only for selected staff. Monitoring runs through the Poshan Tracker, which lets the Ministry, states and districts make timely interventions based on live data. The scheme also provides for social audit by Poshan Panchayats, Mothers' Groups and Village Health, Sanitation and Nutrition Committees, and for third-party evaluation nominated by the Ministry of Women and Child Development.

Common problems at Anganwadi centres and how to escalate

• Beneficiary not registered on the Poshan Tracker; ask the Anganwadi Worker to complete registration; without it there is no entitlement on record.
• Take-Home Ration not distributed on schedule, raise it with the Child Development Project Officer for your project.
• Child not weighed or measured; growth monitoring drives identification of severe malnutrition and the higher nutrition norm.
• Quality or hygiene complaint, the Ministry has issued operational guidelines for food safety and hygiene for supplementary nutrition, and streamlined guidelines on quality assurance and the roles of duty holders.
• THR consumed by other family members. The guidelines require age-specific labelling precisely to prevent this; report it to the supervisor.

Help and grievance redressal

• Anganwadi Worker and Supervisor at your centre. The first point of contact
• Child Development Project Officer (CDPO) at project level
• District Programme Officer (DPO) and the District Nutrition Committee
• Women Helpline: 181
• Childline: 1098
• Ministry of Women and Child Development: wcd.gov.in for scheme guidelines, orders and notifications

All Poshan 2.0 services are free. No Anganwadi Worker or official may charge for registration, Take-Home Ration or a Hot Cooked Meal.