Mandatory face authentication blocks take-home rations for women and children at anganwadis
What happened
From 1 July 2025 the Ministry of Women and Child Development made face recognition mandatory for pregnant and breastfeeding women collecting take-home rations under Poshan Abhiyaan. Anganwadi workers verify each woman in the Poshan Tracker app, which compares a live photo with her Aadhaar photograph. From the first weeks, workers reported failed face scans, one-time passwords that never arrived and server crashes.
A Decode investigation in Bihar, Jharkhand and Karnataka, published in March 2026, found children cut off from meals because the system could not match their mothers’ faces. One worker said she had been told to take at least four children off her centre’s rolls. Government data cited in the report show that 52.7 percent of eligible beneficiaries received rations by the end of 2025.
- 1 July 2025
- Across India
- Welfare and public services
- Face or voice recognitionFace authentication in the Poshan Tracker app, which is owned by the Ministry of Women and Child Development and built by the National e-Governance Division. A live photo is compared with the person’s Aadhaar photograph.
- Worked as built, and the way it was used caused harm
- Human or fundamental rights
- Pregnant and breastfeeding women and young children entitled to take-home rations, and the anganwadi workers who run the checks
- Independent reporting
- Added 01.10.2026
What followed
Anganwadi workers’ federations asked for the rule to be withdrawn, and a union in Karnataka challenged it in the High Court, which on 23 April 2026 asked the state government for its position. The ministry says face authentication stops rations being diverted. It did not answer Decode’s questions about whether the system has been independently audited.
Many of the reported failures come from poor connectivity and one-time passwords, not from the face match itself. There is no official count of people who were excluded.
Sources
- Mandatory facial recognition for women’s nutrition scheme sparks fears of exclusion and tech failures
Down To Earth,
- India’s Facial Recognition Drive On Hungry Children Is Erasing Them
Decode,
- Karnataka High Court Seeks State’s Stand On Anganwadi Workers’ Plea Against Mandatory Facial Recognition To Avail Take-Home Ration Scheme
LiveLaw,
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