Digital Public Infrastructure is becoming the backbone of India's social-sector delivery. Discuss with reference to JANANI and U-WIN.

Q. Digital Public Infrastructure is becoming the backbone of India's social-sector delivery. Discuss with reference to JANANI and U-WIN. (15 marks, 250 words)

Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) — open, interoperable, population-scale digital systems built on the "build-once, use-many" principle — is reshaping how India delivers welfare. Platforms like JANANI and U-WIN show how DPI converts fragmented paper-based tracking into real-time, portable, and accountable service delivery.

DPI as delivery backbone - Longitudinal records: JANANI, an upgraded RCH portal of MoHFW, builds a single continuum-of-care record from antenatal to newborn stages [1]. - Interoperability: JANANI exchanges data with U-WIN (immunisation) and POSHAN (nutrition), enabling convergence across schemes [2]. - Portability: QR-enabled MCH cards let migrant women access history at any facility, ending duplication [2].

Improving social-sector outcomes - Targeted intervention: automated high-risk pregnancy alerts and due-lists aid ASHA/ANM workers, addressing India's plateaued MMR (97/lakh, SRS 2018-20) [2]. - Accountability: real-time dashboards enable supervisory monitoring; adoption already crossed 1.34 crore registrations [1]. - Authenticity: ABHA/Aadhaar biometric verification curbs leakage and ghost beneficiaries [1].

Challenges - Data privacy: mass biometric capture of pregnant women demands strict consent and minimisation under the DPDP Act, 2023. - Digital divide: connectivity and frontline-worker capacity gaps risk uneven coverage.

DPI is thus becoming the connective tissue of India's welfare state, turning entitlements into trackable services. Anchored in robust privacy safeguards and last-mile capacity-building, platforms like JANANI and U-WIN can decisively advance SDG-3 targets on maternal and child survival.

(~250 words)

Sources: 1. Union Health Ministry Launches JANANI Platform to Strengthen Maternal and Child Healthcare (PIB, 2026) — JANANI as upgraded RCH portal, MoHFW, biometric verification, 1.34 crore registrations 2. Health Ministry launches JANANI digital platform for maternal and child healthcare (Akashvani/NewsOnAir, 2026) — U-WIN/POSHAN interoperability, QR-enabled MCH cards, high-risk alerts, continuum of care