Ludhiana, Aug. 31 -- The government's push for digital monitoring of child nutrition has hit a roadblock in Ludhiana, where anganwadi workers say they are being forced to use the Poshan Tracker app without basic resources such as smartphones or reliable internet. The district has now slipped into the "red zone" for recording the lowest child data uploads in Punjab.

The workers have held a series of protests in recent months against the compulsory Poshan Tracker app- the digital tool launched by the Union ministry of women and child development to monitor nutrition schemes. Workers allege that the face-recognition feature has only increased their workload while breeding mistrust among poor households. The app requires face ID and OTP-base...