Delhi to join league of digitised anganwadis as government promises smartphones to 10,000 workers

The smartphone initiative is in line with the Central government’s POSHAN Abhiyan scheme, rolled out in 2018, which provides for digitisation of anganwadis across the country and 50% of the total cost of the initiative will be incurred by the Central government, senior government officials said.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, on Wednesday, announced that 10,000-odd anganwadi workers in the city will be given smartphones for real-time monitoring of centres. This makes Delhi the 11th state so far to join the league of digitised anganwadi centres, senior government officials said.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, on Wednesday, announced that 10,000-odd anganwadi workers in the city will be given smartphones for real-time monitoring of centres. (Bloomberg)

The smartphone initiative is in line with the Central government’s POSHAN Abhiyan scheme, rolled out in 2018, which provides for digitisation of anganwadis across the country and 50% of the total cost of the initiative will be incurred by the Central government, senior government officials said.

According to the details shared by the government, the smartphones will have pre-installed applications that would enable Aadhaar-based registration of people employed in the anganwadi, other than recording their attendance, registering the opening and closing time of the centre and sharing daily photographs and details of children being served food.

“Whenever governments provide electronic gadgets to people on a large scale, ordinarily, they provide substandard products. But we are providing high-end phones; the kind that ministers and IAS officers use. You don’t have to worry about the data charges either, the government will take care of it,” Kejriwal said.

Senior government officials said the Delhi government will ensure that at least one anganwadi worker in each of 10,752 anganwadi centres gets a smartphone. The move, they said, will provide major relief to the anganwadi centres, which currently maintain as many as 18 registers.

Addressing a gathering of anganwadi workers on Wednesday, Kejriwal spoke about how his government has helped increase the salary of anganwadi workers in the city and the benefits of the Mohalla Clinic initiative. He also spoke about the relief lakhs of households consuming less than 200 units a month would get from the electricity bill waiver introduced recently by the Aam Aadmi Party government.