According to the Women and Child Development Ministry, as many as eight lakh fake beneficiaries have been found registered across 1.09 lakh anganwadis in Maharashtra. One of the senior WCD officials said a total of 61 lakh beneficiaries registered in these anganwadis and of them eight lakh names were fake.
In order to combat nutrition and stunting among children below the age of six years, the government set up anganwadis or rural childcare centres. The anganwadis also give nutritious food to lactating mothers. The official added that the ghost beneficiaries were identified after registration of beneficiaries with Aadhaar. The ministry gives Rs 4.8 and the state contributes Rs 3.2 for food per day for every child, the official added.
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With the help of Integrated Child Development Services-Common Application Software (ICDS-CAS) app, fake beneficiaries are being identified through smartphones. It has been distributed to about 1.2 lakh anganwadi centres. Now, the ministry aims to increase its coverage to 14 lakh centres by the end of the year, officials added.
The nutrition monitoring app has been developed under the Poshan Abhiyan, also called the National Nutrition Mission, aims to bring down stunting of children in the age group of 0-6 years from 38.4 per cent to 25 per cent by 2022.