Delhi Anganwadi workers to get smart phones for real-time monitoring
New Delhi
The Delhi government will provide smartphones to 10,000-odd Anganwadi workers in the city for real-time monitoring of the centres and enabling Aadhaar-based registration of people employed in them, said senior Delhi government officials on Tuesday.
The initiative comes under the ambit of the central government’s POSHAN Abhiyan scheme, rolled out in 2018, and 50% of the total cost of which will be incurred by the Centre, senior government officials said.
According to government data, Delhi has 10,752 Anganwadi centres that run under the central government’s Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme. More than 1,13,000 children and around 4,37,000 pregnant and lactating women are beneficiaries of it.
“The Delhi government will ensure that at least one Anganwadi worker in each of 10,752 Anganwadi centres get smartphones,” a senior official in the chief minister’s office said adding, the move will provide major relief to the Anganwadi centres, which currently have to maintain as many as 18 registers.
Most Anganwadi centres are dwelling of families and are supervised by one registered Anganwadi worker who are usually assisted by one to three other workers depending on the size of the centre. They are entrusted with meeting nutrition needs, pre-school education, vaccinations and primary healthcare to children between seven months six years age, pregnant women and lactating women.
The ICDS scheme, which runs Anganwadis was launched in 1975 as a programme for early childhood care and development, is aimed to tackle malnourishment, undernourishment, and anaemia amongst women and children in India. Delhi is one of the states that adopted ICDS.
Delhi government officials said the phones will have installed applications for recording attendance, opening and closing time of the Anganwadi centres, enabling real-time monitoring of the centres, sharing daily photographs of the children being served food in the children, registering time of serving food and “carry out household-wise, name-based, Aadhaar-linked registration” of all members employed in the Anganwadi centres.
So far, under the Centre’s POSHAN scheme as many as 10 states and union territories have implemented such virtual record keeping and monitoring system for Anganwadi centres through smartphones, senior officials said.