Jammu Kashmir Records 89 Per Cent Take-Home Ration Beneficiary Verification Under FRS | Kashmir Life

SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir has achieved 89.43 per cent verification of eligible Take-Home Ration (THR) beneficiaries under the Centre’s Facial Recognition System (FRS), placing the Union Territory mid-range in comparison to other States and UTs, according to official data tabled in Rajya Sabha.

The information was shared by Minister of State for Women and Child Development Savitri Thakur in response to a question by MP Phulo Devi Netam. As per the Ministry’s figures, Jammu and Kashmir has a total of 4,38,722 eligible beneficiaries under the scheme, of whom 3,92,331 have completed both e-KYC and face matching.

The data shows that Jammu and Kashmir trails behind top-performing regions such as Chandigarh, Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh, all of which have achieved over 99 per cent completion. However, it stands ahead of several northeastern and hill States, including Nagaland, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim, where FRS completion remains below 82 per cent.

In the neighbouring Union Territory of Ladakh, only 87.43 per cent of the 9,124 eligible beneficiaries have completed face recognition and e-KYC, placing it slightly lower than Jammu and Kashmir in the verification matrix.

Nationally, the Ministry reported an overall completion rate of 93.18 per cent, with 4,44,27,342 out of 4,76,77,378 eligible beneficiaries verified through FRS as of November 30, 2025.

Responding to concerns regarding pending FRS authentication and e-KYC failures, the Ministry said State-wise details are included in the official annexure and clarified that the scheme remains universal and self-selecting. Beneficiaries willing to undergo the verification process are fully entitled to receive Take-Home Rations.

On the issue of repeated FRS failures leading to paused distributions, the Ministry said the option to provide THR without FRS authentication continues to remain available. It further stated that FRS was introduced as a pilot in six States and UTs in August 2024 — Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and Chandigarh — before being rolled out nationally in December 2024.

While the system aims to curb duplication and leakage, the Ministry did not indicate that any independent audit of error rates, demographic bias or offline reliability of the FRS algorithm has been conducted, beyond noting that onboarding is being carried out gradually.

The scheme operates under Mission Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0, covering children under six, pregnant women, lactating mothers and adolescent girls in Northeastern States and Aspirational Districts.