Minister of State (MoS) for Women and Child Development, Savitri Thakur, said on Friday that various data protection safeguards related to privacy exist in the Poshan Tracker application used in Mission Poshan 2.0 for nutrition delivery at Anganwadi centres.
In reply to a query in Lok Sabha, MoS Thakur said that under Saksham Anganwadi and Mission Poshan 2.0, IT systems have been leveraged to strengthen and bring about transparency in nutrition delivery support systems. Highlighting some of the data protection safeguards in the IT tools, the MoS added that the Poshan Tracker application is typically used by Anganwadi workers, and it is not open to the people or any unauthorised party.
Access is role-based, logged and monitored to prevent misuse, he said. The MoS said that as many as 8.95 lakh Anganwadi workers have been trained across the country till November 30 to use Poshan Tracker application and dashboard. MoS Thakur said that technology under Poshan Tracker is being 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 opening and closing of Anganwadi centres, daily attendance of children, growth monitoring of children, she added. Pointing to the security features of the application, the MoS said its internal database is encrypted to prevent access to sensitive information outside the app environment.
"The data of the beneficiary, which is collected, is subject to all existing data protection protocols, which mandates purpose limitation, informed consent, and access restrictions," she added. The MoS said that all requests and responses related to face verification are encrypted during transit, ensuring data is protected from interception or tampering.
No images or data are stored permanently on the device and as a precautionary measure, all cached or temporary data is wiped automatically when the Anganwadi worker logs out of the application, adding that the private data is not publicly accessible. MoS Thakur added that face images are handled in encoded format within the app to ensure safe processing and transmission.
She said that Mission Saksham Anganwadi and Mission Poshan 2.0 is a Centrally sponsored mission, where the responsibility for implementation of various activities lies with the states and Union Territories. This mission is a universal self-selecting umbrella scheme where there are no entry barriers for any beneficiary to register and receive services.
The Ministry through the Savitri Bai Phule National Institute of Women and Child Development has provided training to different stakeholders for using Poshan Tracker application and dashboard. Grievance redressal mechanism is an integral part of Poshan 2.0. Anganwadi workers can submit their grievances on Poshan Tracker application and dashboard as well.
Besides this, Poshan Helpline (1515), operationalised since November 2022 for registering grievances of Anganwadi workers. The MoS said that through the helpline, an Anganwadi worker can raise the issues being faced related to the application. The helpline is available in 17 languages.