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No complaints of violence against anganwadi workers during pandemic: WCD
The government response was to a question asked by Congress MP Rahul Gandhi. WCD minister Smriti Irani said no state has reported any such incident to the ministry
The ministry of women and child development (WCD) on Friday said that no complaints of violence against anganwadi workers were received during Covid-19. Anganwadi workers were mobilized to carry out relief and awareness work during the pandemic.
The government response was to a question asked by Congress MP Rahul Gandhi. WCD minister Smriti Irani said no state has reported any such incident to the ministry. “However, it is the duty of the state administrations to ensure safety and security of the anganwadi workers (AWWs) and anganwadi Helpers (AWHs),” she added.
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The minister said the government increased the honorarium provided to AWWs from ₹3,000 to ₹4,500 per month in October 2018.For AWHs, the renumeration rose from ₹1,500 to ₹2,250 per month. “(The government also) introduced performance-linked incentive to AWHs at ₹250 per month. Apart from the honorarium and other incentives paid by the Government of India, respective state/UTs are also giving monetary incentives to these workers. Various state governments are compensating these AWWs/ AWHs out of their own resources for Covid-related activities,” Irani said in her response.
On whether many positions for child development project officers were lying vacant, the ministry stated that of the 7,000 sanctioned posts, 4,884 were filled. As for anganwadi supervisors, 51,312 posts have been sanctioned, of which 34,342 are filled. “From time to time, states/UTs are advised to fill the sanctioned positions of staff which are lying vacant for effective implementation of the scheme,” said the minister.
