Under Mission Poshan 2.0, during the 15^th FC cycle period, two lakh Anganwadi Centres located in Government buildings @40,000 AWCs per year are being strengthened as Saksham Anganwadis for delivery of improved nutrition and for Early Childhood Care and Education. Saksham Anganwadis are provided with better infrastructure than the conventional Anganwadi centres with LED screens, water filtration system, Poshan Vatika, ECCE material and BALA paintings. As on 20.03.2026, a total 1,04,403 Anganwadi Centres have been upgraded as Saksham Anganwadi Centres across the country.

The Ministry of Women and Child Development has developed Facial Recognition System (FRS) in Poshan Tracker Application for last mile tracking of Take-Home Ration distribution and to ensure that benefit is given only to the intended beneficiary registered in the application. Further, Aadhaar based tracking has enabled proper identification of beneficiaries, prevention of leakages and eliminating ghost entries.

As on 16^th March, 2026, 41,648 State Level Master Trainers (SLMTs) and 10,40,590 Anganwadi Workers (AWWs) have been trained in Round-1 of Poshan Bhi Padhai Bhi (PBPB) Programme. AWWs have been trained in Early Child Care and Education (ECCE) pedagogy and delivery of nutritional services. The training intends to build capacity of the AWW in delivery of quality ECCE.

The ‘Poshan Tracker’ digital application has been rolled out as an ICT based governance tool for monitoring and tracking of all activities in the Anganwadi Centres (AWCs), AWWs and beneficiaries on defined indicators. It has facilitated near real time data collection for Anganwadi Services such as, opening of AWCs, daily attendance of children, ECCE activities, Growth Monitoring of children, Provision of Supplementary Nutrition etc. Technology under Poshan Tracker is being leveraged for dynamic identification of stunting, wasting, under-weight& overweight prevalence among children from 0-6 years of age group. The State wise information on these indicators is available on the Poshan Tracker public dashboard at: https://www.poshantracker.in/statistics.

The Ministry of Women and Child Development has introduced Palna Scheme under the Samarthya Vertical of Umbrella Mission Shakti for all States and UTs w.e.f. 01 April 2022.

Anganwadi centres are the world's largest childcare institutions dedicated to providing essential care and support to children ensuring delivery of care facilities till the last mile. In a first of its kind approach, Ministry has extended the services of childcare through Anganwadi cum Crèche (AWCC). Anganwadi cum Crèche initiative aims to increase ‘women work force participation’ in the economy. The objective of the scheme is to provide quality crèche facility in safe and secure environment for children (from ages 6 months – 6 years), nutritional support, health and cognitive development of children, growth monitoring and immunization. Crèche facilities under Palna are provided to all mothers, irrespective of their employment status.

Palna scheme is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme. Programme Approval Board (PAB) meetings are held with the State Governments and UT Administrations annually wherein States and UTs submit proposals for opening Anganwadi-cum-Creches and operationalize them. State Governments and UT Administrations also contribute their corresponding share for the implementation of the Scheme.

During the 15^th Finance Cycle i.e. up to FY 2025-26, a total of 17,000 Anganwadi-cum-Creches (AWCCs) are to be established under the Palna Scheme. Till date, 3,130 AWCCs are operational across the country.

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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