Experts flay mandatory Aadhaar for Anganwadi benefits

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru

The Union Women and Child Development Ministry had on August 2 said that only a mother’s Aadhaar registration is mandatory for the Anganwadi scheme. The ministry was, in fact, clarifying its new guidelines of the ‘Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2’ policy and said that the child’s Aadhaar card was not mandatory. However, it stressed that the linking of mother’s Aadhar is compulsory for beneficiaries to access supplementary nutrition and free food provided at 13.89 lakh Anganwadi centres across the nation.

The statement said, “The Anganwadi Services Scheme is open to all eligible beneficiaries on demand, irrespective of caste, religion and income criteria. The only pre-condition is that the beneficiary has to be registered at the nearest Anganwadi Centre with Aadhaar identification.”

 However, experts fear that the current mandate would lead to millions of poor children losing access to food and nutrition. This also creates a huge problem for migrant workers, who have difficulty in producing document proof. Rajiv, a migrant worker living in Ejipura said, “My child goes to nearby Anganwadi for free food. As of now, they didn’t ask for any id proof. My wife and children don’t have Aadhaar card,” he said.

Raj Shekhar, national coordinator of Right to Food Campaign, says that India hasn’t seen much luck with ration distribution because many people didn’t have access to Aadhaar card. He fears the same might happen with Anganwadi schemes. “At present, there are millions of underprivileged people who don’t have proper documents for verification. If the scheme makes it compulsory, a lot of children will be left out,” he said. The challenges of malnutrition and hunger have increased after the pandemic, he added.