Child's Aadhaar not mandatory for availing benefits of Poshan scheme: Govt

New Delhi, June 30

The Women and Child Development (WCD) Ministry has clarified that a child’s Aadhaar card is not mandatory for availing the benefits of nutrition scheme and that these can be accessed using the mother’s biometric card to register on the Poshan tracker app.

The clarification came in response to a media report which claimed that “millions of children will soon need Aadhaar IDs to access their right to a nutritious meal”.

The WCD ministry insisted that the Aadhaar details of children are not mandatory and the ministry is ensuring that the benefits of the nutrition scheme are delivered using the Aadhaar ID of the mother.

The Press Information Bureau fact-check also made the clarification in a tweet.

“A media report claims that the Aadhaar card of children is mandatory for availing the benefits of the POSHAN scheme#PIBFactCheck…This claim is #fake, the Aadhaar card of children is not mandatory, the Aadhaar ID of the mother is required for the Poshan Tracker,” it tweeted.

The ministry recently proposed that the Anganwadi services should be digitised through the Poshan tracker to keep a tab on the nutrition access of the children moving across states.

“When you move from one place to another, it becomes easier for beneficiaries to identify you as part of the programme as a whole and that is why we are proposing to the states that you universalise Poshan access…we are riding on the Aadhaar linkage of the beneficiary,” an official had said earlier this month.