The Union government has mandated the integration of facial recognition systems (FRS) with the Poshan Tracker app for the implementation of the Take Home Ration (THR) programme.
The new mandate, issued on May 30 by the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MoWCD), raises concerns about the potential exclusion of beneficiaries, including pregnant women and new mothers.
The THR programme is aimed at children aged 6 to 36 months and at pregnant and lactating women as a part of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme.
Poshan Tracker, a mobile application launched in March 2021, is used by Anganwadi workers to upload data on stunting, wasting, and underweight prevalence among children and for last-mile tracking of nutrition service delivery.
As per the recent directive, FRS will be compulsory from July 1, which means facial authentication is required at the time of each distribution. From August 1, FRS details should be added on Poshan Tracker at the time of registration of beneficiaries.
The directive mandates taking pictures of child beneficiaries at Anganwadis with liveness detection along with adult FRS. Liveness detection is a process for verifying if a biometric sample, such as a face or a fingerprint, belongs to a real person. The mandate also requires the pictures of young children to be updated when they enter the category of 3 to 6 years old.
Fear of exclusion
“What is the point of getting their photos clicked when the beneficiaries can just sign and avail the THR?” asked Shivani Kaul, president of the Delhi State Anganwadi Workers and Helpers Union.
The introduction of FRS, already being implemented on a pilot basis in multiple states, is the latest trouble for the heavily burdened Anganwadi workers. “That thing (Poshan Tracker) is rotating and rotating (buffering). Today I had to sit with a beneficiary for over 30 minutes to get their image uploaded into the system,” said an Anganwadi worker from Thiruvananthapuram.
“With the introduction of FRS, I have to insist that pregnant women or new mothers come to Anganwadis for availing THR benefits. THR can be distributed only after matching their FRS, which might be an inconvenience to them. In some cases, we will be told to distribute THR to their houses,” she added.
Srinivas Kodali, an independent researcher who has conducted studies among Anganwadi workers working with tribal communities in Andhra Pradesh, said that network failures were a common feature in remote parts of the country.
“In those moments, none of these – fingerprints, iris or FRS – will work, irrespective of technology. Some Anganwadi workers used to walk uphill in rural Andhra Pradesh in search of a network connection. In some cases, servers don’t function. Some Anganwadi workers have told me that Child Development Project Officers (CDPOs) would call them at midnight asking them to upload data as servers were working only at that time,” Srinivas told TNM.
According to him, even a five-minute delay in facial authentication puts a significant dent in Anganwadi workers’ time, given the total number of beneficiaries under each Anganwadi.
Srinivas highlighted the concern of exclusion amid the government’s mandate for FRS and other biometric features. “There might be demand among beneficiaries to offer offline features. However, the solution doesn’t lie in technology. This is a political problem which society should address,” he said.
Tech researcher Srikanth Lakshmanan opined that there could be different manners in which beneficiaries may be excluded due to FRS.
“Sometimes, it may be self-exclusion where the beneficiary might opt out when they do not want to engage in such hassles. FRS normally requires multi-factor authentication. So an OTP would be sent to beneficiaries’ mobile phones. It would require a beneficiary to maintain an Aadhaar-linked mobile number. This would probably cost them Rs 2500 to Rs 3000 per year, which may not be a trivial amount for them,” Srikanth said.
An Anganwadi worker told TNM that she was not able to apply for the Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY), which provides financial assistance to new mothers, after the scheme’s dedicated app demanded facial recognition on both Poshan Tracker and on the PMMVY portal.
“In order to avail financial assistance of Rs 5000 for pregnant women, we are mandated to register within 150 days of the last menstrual cycle. I had uploaded all data for a beneficiary on the PMMVY portal on time. But it said that I have to confirm facial recognition in Poshan Tracker too. It was not working. I fear that the beneficiary might lose her assistance,” she said.
Burden on Anganwadi workers
The Anganwadi workers TNM spoke to are either using outdated smartphones given by the government or their personal phones for uploading data on the Poshan Tracker app. They are neither given reimbursements for their mobile bills nor are they provided with Wi-Fi connections in Anganwadis.
The Anganwadi worker said, “I have deleted all my personal data from my phone to include work-related documents. The phone provided by the government in 2018 became unusable after some years. Now most of us are using our own phones. We have to pay the maintenance costs for these phones out of our meagre honorariums. Any small glitch in the phone can impact our work.”
According to tech experts, the app frequently freezes and has stability issues in older models of phones, as it requires 4G compatibility.
Shivani Kaul agreed that the introduction of FRS is going to put an additional burden on Anganwadi workers. “These apps often don’t function on the outdated mobile phones given by the government. If the system doesn’t work, workers are penalised. In Delhi, the authorities have the practice of serving memos when there is a lapse of any kind. If a worker gets three memos, they will be terminated. Lapses often occur due to tech issues rather than workers’ errors,” she said.
Srinivas said that such technological features likely make the work easier for bureaucrats but add to the burden of Anganwadi workers, who are already underpaid and not considered full-time employees.
Anganwadi workers are only paid an honorarium alongside incentives. Despite repeated protests, the Union government has not agreed to the demands of Anganwadi workers to be made permanent employees with rights to pensions.
An Anganwadi worker from Kerala told TNM that she was paying mobile bills and bearing charges of repair works while only making Rs 12,800 a month.
“Most of us have spent our wages to purchase smartphones. We will be denied incentives if we fail to log in on time. We are given low pay and discriminated against because we are women. If there were male Anganwadi workers, they wouldn’t be made to take up so many responsibilities for such low pay,” she said.
Shivani said an Anganwadi worker in Delhi should get around Rs 13,200 as per official statements, but most are paid only around Rs 12,700.
Last year, the MoWCD informed the Rajya Sabha that it had issued a policy to state governments in March 2023 requesting them to submit their requirement for the replacement of smartphones based on eligibility. The ministry has also claimed that it pays each Anganwadi worker Rs 2000 annually for internet bills. However, Shivani said that such promises are only on paper.
Another Anganwadi worker told TNM that the Poshan Tracker was easy to use, provided there are no network issues. Though workers upload data, including the height and weight of children, they were also mandated to maintain physical records.
Will this normalise facial authentication?
“FRS is not necessary for the delivery of welfare schemes. The government is forcing it because of the paradigm that there are leakages in distribution. These systems are an excuse for the government to limit the number of people who get welfare,” Srinivas said.
Srinivas added that such data collection is not driven by an interest in people’s welfare but in the interest of bureaucrats and economists, as it helps them conduct randomised studies.
Shivani pointed out that the government having access to the private data of young children is a matter of concern. “Why does the government need such massive online data? Our union has decided to condemn this move. We are going to file a memorandum with both the Union and the Delhi government demanding a pause on this directive,” she said.
Srikant agreed that there are data security and privacy concerns in collecting the photos of children over a period of several years. He, however, sees the move as a wider experiment on facial authentication.
“There have been some pilot projects using facial authentication in certain schemes. I see this is an experiment to slowly push for a larger implementation of FRS. Just like Aadhaar, it will eventually be rolled out to all other schemes. This will also normalise the practice of facial recognition among a younger population,” he said.