Coming close on the heels of a 11-year-old girl reportedly dying in Jharkhand as her family did not possess Aadhar cards for rations, the All India Federation of Anganwadi Workers and Helpers Federation said that in many States such as West Bengal, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar, departments were directing Anganwadi workers to link the beneficiaries’ Aadhaar number with their parents’ bank accounts for cash transfer.

In a statement on Tuesday, the federation urged the Women and Child Development Ministry to clearly state its position on Aadhaar-linkage, whether freshly cooked food will be replaced by cash transfers or packaged food in Anganwadis, and if it had directed States to run pilot projects in this regard.

It cited a recent report that quoted a senior ministry official saying that “there is no proposal to discontinue the supplementary nutrition programme under Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) and replace it with conditional cash transfer”.

Another statement issued by the ministry on March 9 stated: “There have also been complaints about the quality of Take Home Rations (THR). Therefore, the government is considering ways to improve the system and to make it more transparent. It is also exploring the possibility of Conditional Cash Transfer in lieu of THR in select districts as a pilot as one of the options. However, a final decision is yet to be taken in this regard.”

‘Statements misleading’

Terming recent statements from the ministry as “misleading”, the federation said: “The ministry should clarify the result of its ‘exploration’ and its ‘final decision’ regarding this, and who is taking that decision.”

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