Government officials have verified that approximately one lakh girls aged 11-14, who had previously dropped out of school, have successfully returned to mainstream education. The number of reported dropouts in this age group has significantly decreased over the years.
In 2013-14, the states and union territories reported a dropout count of 11.4 million girls aged 11-14. This number decreased to 5 lakhs in 2020-21, further reducing to 3.8 lakhs in 2021-22, and eventually reaching around one lakh in July last year. This decline can be attributed to the identification and removal of fraudulent beneficiaries and incorrect records.
Following the reintegration of these 100,000 girls into mainstream education, the Scheme for Adolescent Girls (SAG) for the 11-14 age group has been discontinued and merged into the Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 Mission. The revised SAG now focuses on girls aged 14-18 in districts with aspirations and the northeast region, identifying a total of 2.24 million adolescent girls.
Out of the identified 2.2 million girls under the revised SAG, 1.9 million have undergone Aadhaar seeding. Additionally, the Poshan Tracker, which monitors real-time activities of Anganwadi centres, has successfully linked 9.38 crore beneficiaries with Aadhaar out of 10.06 crore beneficiaries. The process of geotagging 1 million Anganwadi centres is currently in progress, with plans to complete the task for the remaining centres.
The government aims to make 2 lakh Anganwadi centres “saksham” or self-dependent by 2025-26, with 41,000 centres already achieving this status in the first year. Additionally, the program includes upgrading 160,000 mini anganwadis to full-fledged Anganwadi centres.
Furthermore, efforts are underway to link the Aadhaar information of migrant workers to ensure their access to Anganwadi benefits throughout the country. This initiative has already benefited 57,000 workers and has improved coordination among states.