DIGITAL PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE AS A FORCE MULTIPLIER FOR WOMEN AND CHILD WELFARE IN INDIA

THE CONTEXT: Over the last decade the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) has pivoted from paper-based outreach to data-driven, real-time service delivery, leveraging India’s expanding stack of digital public goods. Flagship platforms such as Poshan Tracker, Saksham Anganwadi upgrades, SHe-Box, Mission Shakti and the Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY) demonstrate the State’s aspiration to make entitlements portable, transparent and outcome-oriented.

THE EVOLUTION:

• • Early phase (2008-2014): Stand-alone Management Information Systems (MIS) for ICDS and the Indira Gandhi Matritva Sahyog Yojana laid the groundwork but suffered from data silos.
  • Digital consolidation (2015-2020): Aadhaar seeding, Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) pipelines and the launch of Beti Bachao Beti Padhao normalised real-time dashboards.
  • DPI deepening (2021-25): Unified dashboards, facial-recognition attendance, geotagging of One-Stop Centres (OSCs) and mobile apps have brought over 10.14 crore beneficiaries on a single nutritional ledger.

THE THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK:

• • Drawing on Amartya Sen’s “capabilities” approach and the World Bank’s “DPI trinity” (digital ID, payments, data exchange), India’s model positions technology as an enabling public good that enlarges women’s and children’s substantive freedoms. Digital interventions serve three overlapping functions: (i) targeting (unique identity), (ii) transacting (seamless DBT), and (iii) transforming (data-guided policy iteration).

WHAT-WHY-HOW:

• • What? Integrated digital platforms for nutrition, protection, grievance redress and maternal health.
  • Why? To overcome leakage (estimated at 15-20 percent in pre-DBT ICDS audits), informational asymmetry, and gendered mobility constraints.
  • How? Smartphone-equipped Anganwadi workers, API-enabled dashboards, automated beneficiary verification (Aadhaar/Facial-Recognition Technology) and interoperable payment rails.

CURRENT SCENARIO — KEY STATISTICS:

POLICY AND INSTITUTIONAL ARCHITECTURE:

• • Integrated Nutrition Support: Saksham Anganwadi & Poshan 2.0 (2021-26) blends Supplementary Nutrition Programme and Poshan Abhiyaan with performance-linked grants.
  • Maternal cash transfers: PMMVY Rules, 2022 raise the second-child incentive to ₹6 000 when the second child is a girl, backed by a paperless DBT workflow.
  • Safety and grievance mechanisms: SHe-Box 2.0 routes workplace-harassment complaints directly to the competent Internal Committee, while Mission Shakti clubs OSCs, emergency helplines and shelter support under a single budget head.
  • Child protection: Mission Vatsalya dashboard and CARINGS ensure continuum of care from institutionalisation to adoption.

THE ISSUES:

• • Data privacy and consent: Absence of a sector-specific data fiduciary framework for children heightens risks of profiling and commercial misuse.
  • Digital exclusion: Nearly 38 percent of Anganwadi workers report intermittent connectivity, impeding real-time uploads in hilly and tribal areas.
  • Algorithmic opacity: Facial-recognition error rates are higher for darker skin tones, potentially denying legitimate nutrition claims.
  • Human-resource overload: App-based reporting adds to frontline workers’ administrative burden, crowding out time for counselling and early stimulation.
  • Inter-scheme fragmentation: Nutrition, health and sanitation databases are yet to achieve full API-level interoperability, leading to parallel data entry.
  • Fiscal sustainability: Dependence on centrally sponsored outlays raises questions about long-term maintenance of digital assets by cash-strapped States.
  • Cultural barriers: Patriarchal norms still influence birth registration, POSHAN participation and adoption rates, muting digital gains.
  • Security vulnerabilities: Legacy servers and outdated encryption pose cyber-security risks to sensitive beneficiary data.

THE WAY FORWARD:

• • Enact a Child-Centric Data Protection Rule: Amend the Digital Personal Data Protection Act to create a special fiduciary category for child data, mandate parental consent dashboards and periodic algorithmic audits to curb profiling.
  • Deploy “store-and-forward” offline apps: Enable Anganwadi applications to capture data without network and auto-sync at block headquarters, ensuring continuity in low-connectivity pockets without compromising timeliness.
  • Introduce outcome-linked fiscal transfers: Use the Fifteenth Finance Commission window to reward districts that demonstrably improve stunting and sex-ratio indicators, nudging evidence-based governance.
  • Launch micro-credential programmes for Anganwadi staff: Partner with National Skill Development Corporation to offer credit-bearing online modules in growth monitoring, early-childhood pedagogy and digital literacy, tied to career progression.
  • Adopt privacy-preserving facial recognition. Shift to on-device encryption and federated learning to minimise central storage of biometric templates, lowering breach risks while retaining authentication benefits.
  • Embed gender-responsive budgeting in DPI projects: Mandate ex-ante and ex-post gender impact assessments for every major e-governance tender under the Public Financial Management System.
  • Set up a National Women-and-Child Innovation Challenge Fund: Offer grand-challenge grants to start-ups developing assistive tech (e.g., AI-based sign-language modules) that can be integrated into Mission Shakti.
  • Integrate mental health chatbots for adolescents: Leverage the National Tele-Mental Health Programme (Tele-MANAS) APIs to offer anonymous, language-agnostic counselling through the Mission Vatsalya app.
  • Institutionalise community data stewards: Appoint trained local women as “data sevikas” to verify records, conduct social audits and bridge trust deficits between the State and beneficiaries.

THE CONCLUSION:

India’s experience illustrates that when DPI is married to gender-responsive policy design, technology becomes a force multiplier rather than a mere conduit. Sustained political will, ethical tech standards and frontline capacity-building can turn the “last mile” into the “first mile” of empowerment.

UPSC PAST YEAR QUESTION:

Q. E-Governance is not only about utilization of the power of new technology, but also much about critical importance of the ‘use value’ of information Explain. 2018

MAINS PRACTICE QUESTION:

Q. Discuss how Digital Public Infrastructure is reshaping the delivery of women- and child-centric welfare schemes in India.

SOURCE:

https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/using-tech-to-empower-women-and-children/article69760575.ece