State to secure 1L Anganwadi phones, boost ‘Poshan Tracker’ App
Kolkata: To protect beneficiary data, improve real-time reporting and ensure smooth functioning of the ‘Poshan Tracker’ App across West Bengal, the state government has launched a plan to secure and manage around 1.05 lakh smartphones used by Anganwadi workers under the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme.
The smartphones, used every day to record the health and nutrition details of women and children in towns and remote villages alike, will now be brought under a central mobile management system, sources confirmed.
The initiative, it was learnt, is aimed at preventing data loss, reducing downtime and making field work faster and more reliable for the thousands of Anganwadi workers who serve as the first link in Bengal’s nutrition and maternal care chain. An official said that the project of the Department of Women and Child Development and Social Welfare seeks a system integrator to implement a cloud-based Mobile Device Management (MDM) platform. Once installed, the system will allow officials to push software updates, restrict unauthorised applications, remotely fix glitches and secure or wipe data if a device is lost or stolen.
Officials said the new system would give the ‘Poshan Tracker’ app a stronger technological backbone while improving data security at every level. “This will help us ensure that beneficiary information remains safe and the system functions without interruption,” an official said.
The MDM platform will also provide district and state administrators with real-time dashboards to monitor performance, track field usage and address device-level issues more quickly.
The four-year plan includes automatic device enrollment through Google Zero Touch or equivalent systems, hosting of data on secure India-based cloud servers, and strict service-level agreements for ongoing technical support throughout the 48-month contract period.
For Anganwadi workers, the transition will be mostly seamless — their daily reporting through the ‘Poshan Tracker’ will continue as before. But for Bengal’s flagship nutrition mission, it represents a quiet yet significant digital step forward, designed to make data safer, coordination smoother and service delivery far more efficient across the state.
