Right to Food Campaign Strongly Condemns Exclusionary Facial Recognition Mandate for providing nutrition under Supplementary Nutrition Scheme

The Right to Food Campaign demands immediate withdrawal of mandatory facial recognition for nutrition access and restoration of universal, dignified, and non-discriminatory access to the Supplementary Nutrition Scheme.

The Right to Food Campaign unequivocally condemns the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India’s coercive imposition of facial recognition authentication through the POSHAN Tracker app for the distribution of Take-Home Ration (THR) under the Supplementary Nutrition Programme (SNP). This mandatory two-step verification- requiring both facial recognition of rightholders (children aged 6 months to 3 years, pregnant and lactating women) and OTP verification via Aadhaar-linked mobile numbers is a grave violation of the right to food and dignity. As per the Ministry’s letter dated 5 March 2025, states were threatened with denial of revised nutrition cost norms if they failed to enforce this by 25 March. A subsequent letter dated 30 May 2025 further mandates biometric attendance for children aged 3–6 years receiving hot cooked meals at Anganwadi Centres (AWCs) for ‘liveness’ detection.

On 30 June, Anganwadi workers across the country were abruptly instructed to reinstall the POSHAN Tracker app, now stripped of the option to bypass facial recognition— turning a flawed and exclusionary technology into a gatekeeper for critical nutrition services. This move not only undermines access to food for India’s most vulnerable populations, but also turns Anganwadi workers into enforcers of a system that is both unjust and unworkable. It also violates the National Food Security Act 2013, which mandates SNP universally to pregnant and lactating women and children under six years of age as per norm specified in the act. This technologically coercive measure threatens to undermine India's most critical nutrition safety net for vulnerable women and children, many of whom face rejections while updating or getting new cards done due to a variety of technical glitches and mobile phone issues.

ICDS: Ensuring Every Child’s Right to Nutrition in India

The Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) is India's flagship program to combat malnutrition, serving 70 million rightholders including children under six years, pregnant women and lactating mothers through 1.4 million Anganwadi Centers. Supplementary nutrition for these target groups, as well as all other services of the ICDS including preschool education, nutrition and health counselling and growth monitoring, are universal services without any eligibility requirements.

In repeated orders in the ‘Right to Food case’ (PUCL vs Union of India & Ors., CWP 196/2001) the Supreme Court has clearly stated that every child under six years of age, every pregnant and lactating woman and every adolescent girl is entitled to all services of the ICDS.

Supplementary nutrition under ICDS, through the Anganwadi centres, is also a legal entitlement under the National Food Security Act (NFSA). Under the NFSA this is a universal entitlement making every child under six years of age and every pregnant and lactating woman eligible.

Towards meeting these obligations, the services of ICDS are legally mandated to be accessible to the target groups without any mandatory requirements like residence proof, Aadhaar etc. Just the mere presence of a young child or a pregnant/lactating woman at an Anganwadi centre is enough for them to be given supplementary nutrition.

The facial recognition mandate, however, turns this right into a conditional privilege, contingent on access to smartphones , internet connectivity, functioning apps, and correct Aadhaar-linked numbers—none of which are guaranteed for most marginalised families accessing the service. Every state possesses the data on the number of children who will be excluded in case FSR becomes a condition for receiving THR. We have received widespread reports on exclusion, technical failures, harassment of workers, and disruption of services since this mandate was rolled out. If the MWCD reaches out to CDPOs, Supervisors and AWWs across the country, it can have an idea on the ground reality and the extent of the problem.

Why This Mandate Must Be Withdrawn:

Mass Exclusion by Design: Many rightsholders—especially women in rural and tribal areas lack personal phones or Aadhaar-linked numbers. Shared or outdated numbers, patchy networks, failed scans, and server issues result in large-scale denial of entitlements. Many rightsholders are unable to update their mobile phones due to systemic issues, issues related to spellings of names etc. The notification will deny the most poor women and children including the migrants with address proofs from their legal right to food.

Illegal and Unconstitutional: The mandate violates the Supreme Court’s directives in the Right to Food case and the NFSA’s Section 4 and 5, which guarantees universal, unconditional access to nutrition for children and women.

Anganwadi Workers Overburdened and Exploited: Workers are being forced to use their personal phones without compensation, spending excessive time (up to 30 minutes per beneficiary) navigating repeated authentication failures often under threat of disciplinary action.

No Evidence of Reduced Leakages: Despite claims of transparency and efficiency, there is no public evidence that facial recognition has reduced corruption. On the contrary, it has introduced new avenues for exclusion, fraud, and data misuse.

Our Demands:

Immediate withdrawal of the order mandating FRS for nutrition access.

Ensure universal access to Take-Home Rations and other ICDS services without any biometric or Aadhaar-based conditionalities.

Provide adequate infrastructure and digital support for Anganwadi workers, including high-quality smartphones, data plans, or computers with internet access.

Publicly release data on exclusions from pilot projects to assess the real impact of FRS implementation.

At a time when 35% of children in India suffer from stunting, it is unconscionable that access to food is being made conditional upon flawed technology. The Right to Food Campaign calls for the immediate revocation of this exclusionary and unlawful mandate and affirms its resolve to challenge it through all democratic means.

Atendriya Dana, Aysha, James Herenj, Mukta Srivastava, Raj Shekhar, Sameet Panda (National Conveners) on behalf of the Steering Committee of Right to Food Campaign.

Contact rtfcindia@gmail.com