NEW DELHI: Civil society groups under the Right to Food Campaign (RTF) are demanding the immediate removal of mandatory facial recognition for accessing nutrition services.They are calling for the restoration of universal, dignified, and non-discriminatory access to the Supplementary Nutrition Scheme.On June 30, the Ministry of Women and Child Development made it mandatory to use facial recognition technology to identify beneficiaries.The group termed the mandatory face recognition as a mass exclusion by design, illegal and unconstitutional. Further, the process will be overburdened for the Anganwadi Workers. They also questioned the government’s claim the facial recognition will stop the leakages in the scheme.The group pointed out that marginalised families would bear the brunt of use of facial-recognition technology.“The facial recognition mandate changes the right to access services into a privilege that depends on having a smartphone, internet connection, working apps, and a correct Aadhaar-linked number,” said Sameet Panda, National Conveners at RTF.“Most marginalized families do not have guaranteed access to these things when using the service,” adds Panda.The civil society groups demand of removal of technology in the context of prevalence of high-level of malnutrition in the country. According to its assessment, there is 35% of children in India suffer from stunting. “Under such scenario, it is unconscionable that access to food is being made conditional upon flawed technology,” said Panda.Earlier, when the Ministry of Women and Child Development introduced POSHAN Tracker application with two-step verification process – requiring both facial recognition of rights holders (children aged 6 months to 3 years, pregnant and lactating women) and OTP verification via Aadhaar-linked mobile numbers, the RTF capaigners then registered their protest terming its exclusionary process.“Instead of paying heed to the demand of the activists, Ministry further went ahead of its ‘exclusionary policy’,” claimed Panda.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.Finally, on 30 June 2025, Anganwadi workers across the country were abruptly instructed to reinstall the POSHAN Tracker app. The new app has only a facial recognition service to identify the beneficiary, claimed the RTF release.The RTF campaign calls for the immediate revocation of this exclusionary and unlawful mandate and affirms its resolve to challenge it through all democratic means.
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