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The Hindu
2 days ago
- Health
- The Hindu
Glitches in Poshan app hindering beneficiaries' registration in Haryana
After completing her pre-school duty, Usha Rani, a 47-year-old anganwadi worker, walked through the winding alleys of Marodhi Jattan village in Rohtak, Haryana, to meet her assigned beneficiaries – seven pregnant women and three lactating mothers – and get them registered on the Poshan Tracker app for availing dietary benefits. The facial recognition of her beneficiaries on the app, made mandatory by the Centre since July 1, has been pending. Ms. Rani tried numerous times to get them registered, but an 'error' message popped up every time. The anganwadi worker apologised to the beneficiaries for the inconvenience and told them she would try to get them registered soon so that they can avail themselves of the take-home ration and other benefits. The Union Ministry of Women and Child Development has directed anganwadi workers to complete the authentication of beneficiaries, which includes facial recognition and Aadhaar e-KYC on the Poshan Tracker app. The initiative is for monitoring the implementation of Poshan Abhiyaan, a health scheme to improve the nutrition parameters in children and women. The Ministry has also ordered registration of all beneficiary children through their guardians' or parents' Aadhaar cards on the app. Under the scheme, anganwadi workers and helpers are tasked to provide supplementary nutrition for infants, lactating and pregnant mothers, pre-school education, health check-ups and immunisation for children up to six years. Ms. Rani said getting the beneficiaries registered on the app is not as easy as it seems. She mentioned that in some cases, the app fails to register the women beneficiary's face. Moreover, there are a few cases of the beneficiary's name being misspelt on their Aadhaar card, which the app does not accept. Another anganwadi worker, Sushila, 44, who does not know how to operate a smartphone and relies on her daughter, Monika, 22, for help, said that poor Internet connectivity at some places and technical glitches in the app at times are other hurdles. 'In one case, we tried for more than 30 minutes to get the facial recognition of the beneficiary done. We attempted multiple angles and locations, but in vain,' said Ms. Sushila. A pregnant woman in the village, who did not wish to be named, said, 'My husband has lost his mobile phone, and my Aadhaar card was linked to his number, as I do not have a phone. To register on the Poshan app, my husband's number must be active. I have stopped receiving the dietary supplements as I am not registered on the app.' Digital divide While the Ministry has maintained that integrating technology into its programmes ensures that benefits reach the last mile swiftly and transparently, the beneficiaries argue that digitisation has only increased their problems. According to the 'Comprehensive Modular Survey: Telecom, 2025' by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, 74.2% of women in rural Haryana have access to a mobile phone, against 94% men. Ms. Rani said she wants to keep up with digitisation, but anganwadi workers have not received any specific training for this purpose.
Time of India
12-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Railways to implement Aadhaar-based facial recognition in exams
NEW DELHI: In a move to eliminate any scope of impersonation in recruitment exams, railways will implement Aadhaar-based facial recognition in all such tests across all centres in the next four months. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now The step aimed at enhancing exam integrity follows a successful pilot by during the 2025 NEET-UG. The system authenticates candidates through real-time facial matching at the time of registration and during the exam using Aadhaar e-KYC. Photographs captured at application, registration, and examination stages is matched for post-exam verification as well. For smooth digital operations, the railways has deployed 500 high-capacity servers, replacing older infrastructure to eliminate download failures and glitches. Also, over 7,000 exam centres now have jammers which have led to zero cheating cases in 2025, officials said.
The Hindu
06-07-2025
- General
- The Hindu
Mandating facial recognition for beneficiaries has increased workload, say anganwadi workers
Over the past few weeks, Seema*, 45, an anganwadi worker in north-east Delhi's Bhalswa Dairy, has been making extra trips between her anganwadi centre and the houses of the beneficiaries in her charge to upload their photos on the Poshan Tracker app. In an order issued last month, the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development made face recognition authentication mandatory for anganwadi beneficiaries, comprising pregnant and lactating mothers, as well as children up to the age of six, effective from July 1. The circular directed anganwadi workers to complete the authentication process through the beneficiaries' Aadhaar e-KYC ahead of the deadline on the Poshan Tracker, rolled out in 2021 to monitor the implementation of the scheme and track the growth of children. 'Sometimes, the photos don't get uploaded as the application does not recognise the face. Moreover, we also face issues with Internet connectivity. So we have to ask the beneficiaries to return to the centre later or we have to track them down at their house when the Internet issue is resolved,' Ms. Seema says. Like Ms. Seema, many anganwadi workers in Delhi told The Hindu that they have been facing technical challenges in complying with the Ministry's May 30 order, which has also increased their workload without offering extra compensation. Earlier, when women collected rations, their details were entered on the app and noted in a logbook. 'Foregoing wages' An anganwadi helper in Bhalswa Dairy said, 'Women who come to the centre have to forego their daily wage or leave their infants in someone else's care. It's not easy for them to keep making rounds. On average, we spend 20 minutes trying to upload the photo, but the application keeps crashing.' In the past few weeks, she says that she has visited a beneficiary's house at least four times for a task that could have been completed in a single trip. Under the Integrated Child Development Services scheme, anganwadi workers and helpers are tasked with providing supplementary nutrition for infants, lactating and pregnant mothers, freshly cooked meals at the anganwadi centre, and early childhood education, as well as health check-ups and immunisation for children up to six years. There is now an element of technology involved in each of these tasks. Each task now takes an additional two to three hours, say anganwadi workers. 'Impact on beneficiaries' On June 22, the Delhi State Anganwadi Workers and Helpers Union issued a statement, saying, 'Anganwadi workers have repeatedly complained that the app often fails to open, crashes, or refuses to accept basic data such as height and weight. And now, facial recognition has been added to this flawed system.' The union president, Shivani, said, 'Facial recognition is not only increasing the workload, but also impacting the beneficiaries. For instance, a growing child's facial features keep changing, so the app often fails to recognise the child's face when a worker tries to upload it, which causes the beneficiaries to lose out on the benefits.' An anganwadi helper in Sonia Vihar said, 'Many workers have been asking their children to help them with the technology. We were given basic training during the pandemic, but that is not enough, and we keep facing technical issues that we do not know how to resolve.' When reached for comment, the Ministry did not respond. *Name changed on request
