Mission Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 (Mission Poshan 2.0) is a Centrally Sponsored scheme being implemented to address the challenge of malnutrition. Central Government is responsible for policy and planning and the State Governments/UT Administrations are responsible for day-to-day program implementation.

Under Mission Poshan 2.0, Community Mobilization and Awareness Advocacy is undertaken to educate people on nutritional aspects as adoption of good nutrition habit requires sustained efforts for behavioural change. State and UTs are conducting and reporting regular sensitisation activities under Jan Andolans during Poshan Maahs and Poshan Pakhwadas celebrated in the months of September and March-April respectively. Community Based Events (CBEs) have served as a significant strategy in changing nutritional practices and all Anganwadi workers are required to conduct two Community Based Events every month.

Under Mission Poshan 2.0, two lakh Anganwadi Centres located in Government buildings @ 40,000 AWCs per year are strengthened as Saksham Anganwadis for delivery of improved nutrition and for Early Childhood Care and Education in the 15^th Finance Commission cycle. 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.

Under PM JANMAN for the targeted development of 75 Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs), a total of 2,500 Anganwadi Centres (AWCs) has been sanctioned for construction across the country.

Under Dharti Abha Janjati Gram Unnat Abhiyan, to improve the socio-economic conditions of tribal communities, 875 AWCs have been sanctioned for construction across the country.

In order to improve the infrastructure facility of Anganwadi Centres (AWCs) various steps have been undertaken by the Ministry that, inter alia, include increasing the funding for drinking water facilities and toilets at Anganwadi Centres from Rs.10,000/- to Rs.17,000/- and Rs.12,000/- to Rs.36,000/- respectively.

Poshan Tracker an ICT tool has been implemented for monitoring and tracking of infrastructure and service delivery at Anganwadi Centres (AWCs) and beneficiaries on defined indicators. Poshan Tracker is leveraged for dynamic identification of stunting, wasting, under-weight prevalence among children. It has facilitated near real time data collection for Anganwadi Services such as, daily attendance, ECCE, Provision of Hot Cooked Meal (HCM)/Take Home Ration (THR-not raw ration), Growth Measurement, Monthly Progress Reports (MPR) providing detailed insights into program performance, Daily tracking of AWC activities with photo capture for monitoring etc.

Poshan Tracker is supported by a dedicated Poshan Helpline no. 1515; a multilingual support system which ensures accessibility and complaint mechanism for beneficiaries and Anganwadi Workers across diverse regions of India.

Through sustained engagements and meetings at regular intervals, States and UTs have been requested to optimize coverage of beneficiaries including child beneficiaries and ensure efficient implementation of the scheme.

In convergence with Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education Guidelines for Co-locating Anganwadi Centres within Government Primary Schools have been jointly launched on 3^rd September, 2025 to strengthen ECCE and Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN) services. The Guidelines specify the manner in which co-location of these AWCs can be done, wherever possible. In places where physical co-location is not possible, AWCs are to be mapped with the nearest primary school. This approach aligns with the vision of National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, which aims to build a strong foundation for young and healthy learners.

 

As per Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE+) portal 2,99,546 Anganwadi Centres have been co-located with Government primary schools across the country.

 

This information was given by the Minister of State for Women and Child Development Smt. Savitri Thakur in Lok Sabha in reply to a question today.

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