ANGANWADI SYSTEM IN INDIA

ANGANWADI SYSTEM

The Ministry of Women & Child Development
 MoWCD) has recently informed the Parliament that it has spent over Rs.18,000 crores in the last financial
year to strengthen the Anganwadi system.

About Anganwadisystem
• The Anganwadi system, launched under the Anganwadi Services Scheme (now renamed as Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0), is an integral part of the Integrated Child Development Service (ICDS) scheme (refer to the infographics).
 The Anganwadi Services Scheme is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme under MoWCD.
 It represents one of the world’s largest and unique programmes for early childhood care and
development.
 The scheme aims to-
= improve the nutritional and health status of children (0-6 years), pregnant women and lactating mothers,   and
=reduce the incidences of mortality, morbidity and
malnutrition.
• The system serves to 906.17 lakh beneficiaries through
Anganwadi Centres (AWCs): There are around 13.89 lakh AWCs across the country that provide a platform for rendering all services under the scheme.

 Anganwadi Workers (AWWs) and Anganwadi Helpers (AWHs):
 There are around 13.14 lakhs AWWs and 11.74 lakhs AWHs.
1. They are the basic functionaries of the ICDS who run the AWCs and implement the ICDS scheme.
2.  One village/ area is managed by a single Anganwadi worker (AWW), who is chosen from the community and has been trained in areas such as health, nutrition and childcare.
• AWCs are also digitally strengthened with smartphones for POSHAN tracking systems, and monitoring devices.
 The ‘Poshan Tracker’ is a job-aid to the AWWs for efficient delivery of services along with reflection of
their efforts.
 This mobile based application is being leveraged for dynamic identification of stunting, wasting, under-weight prevalence among children and last mile tracking of nutrition service delivery.

• Compensation:
 The AWWs and AWHs are paid fixed honorarium per month as decided by the Government from time
to time.
1. Honorarium of the AWWs by the Centre has been enhanced to 3500 rupees per month.
2.AWWs are also allowed a performance linked incentive of Rs. 500/- per month for using ICDS-CAS
under POSHAN Abhiyaan.
3. ICDS-Common Application Software (CAS) facilitates the capture of data by frontline functionaries.
✓ It’s a six-tier dashboard that replaces registers with
smartphones Also, most of the States/UTs are paying additional honorarium to these functionaries from their own resources.

 Insurance coverage: AWWs and AWHs have been covered under:
1. Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti
Bima yojana (PMJJBY)
2. Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima
yojana (PMSBY)
3. Anganwadi Karyakartri Bima yojana (AKBY)
 Other benefits: Paid leave, reservation in promotions, uniforms and other incentives and awards for
rendering exemplary services.

Challenges in Anganwadi system
• Financial: The scheme suffers from inconsistency in percentage increase in budget allocations over the
years.
There are also issues of improper planning and implementation and non-adherence of financial and
physical targets.
• Inadequate number of AWCs: There is a gap between sanctioned and operational number of AWCs across
various states that ranges anywhere from 2% to 8.37%.
• Inadequate basic amenities at AWCs: Many operational AWCs lack access to basic amenities of drinking water and toilets.
 For example, in Meghalaya only 30.85% AWCs have drinking water facilities.
• Accessibility to technology: Although availability of smartphones is a necessity for ICDS-CAS, many AWWs
have not received smartphones affecting their functioning.
• Inadequate human capital: In many States/UTs, like Telangana, Bihar, Karnataka, a large number of posts
of Supervisors, AWWs and AWHs have been lying vacant.

Way Ahead
• Basic amenities: Creating drinking water and toilet facilities in AWCs should be taken on priority basis if
quality services are to be rendered to the beneficiaries.
• Improve service condition: It is imperative to provide enhanced remunerations and better service conditions to them.
• Effective deployment of technology: Many AWCs suffer from lack of availability of a height and weight
measuring instrument which needs immediate attention.



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