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Context:

• Anganwadis are slowly reopening in Karnataka, Bihar and Tamil Nadu 

Role of Anganwadi workers

• Conducting regular quick surveys of all families.
• Organizing pre-school activities.
• Providing health and nutrition education to families, especially pregnant women.
• Motivating families to adopt family planning.
• Educating parents about child growth and development.
• Educating teenage girls and parents by organizing social awareness programs.
• Identifying disabilities in children.

Challenges Faced by Aanganwadis:

• Lack of Skill Set:-Despite being the major source of nutrition advice, anganwadi staff may be lacking in technical skills.Knowledge of critical health behaviours such as complementary feeding and handwashing was poor among mothers listed as anganwadi workers.
• Lack of Resources: Anganwadi personnel frequently lack the resources or training necessary to deliver ECCE.
• Lack of Time: Administrative obligations consume a large amount of time, and fundamental services such as pre-school education suffer as a result.
• Lack of Infrastructure: Infrastructure is frequently lacking in anganwadis. According to NITI Aayog, only 59% of anganwadis had enough seating for children and employees, and more than half were unsanitary.
• Issues in Urban Areas: According to NFHS-4 statistics, the use of early childcare services at anganwadis in urban regions is just 28 percent, compared to 42 percent in rural areas.

Significance of Aanganwadi:

• A survey by IDinsightacross five states between Nov. 2018 to Nov. 2019, found that Anganwadi workers were a primary source of nutrition information for families.
• According to NFHS-5, in 2019-20, less than 15% of five-year-olds attended any pre-primary school. 58% of women cited home-schooling as the biggest contributor behind an increase in unpaid work at home.
• Therefore, National education policy 2020places Anganwadis at the center of the push for universal access to early childhood care and education (ECCE).

Measures taken for Strengthening of Aanganwadi:

• Construction of 4 lakh AWC buildings across the countryunder Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in convergence with Anganwadi Services (ICDS Scheme).
• Anganwadi Workers (AWWs) have been provided with Smart Phones for efficient service delivery.
• Streamlined guidelines were issued covering several aspects such as quality assurance, roles and responsibilities of duty holders, procedure for procurement, integrating AYUSH concepts and Data management and Monitoring through ‘Poshan Tracker’ for transparency, efficiency and accountability in delivery of Supplementary Nutrition.
• Since the inception of the Scheme, the Ministry has formulated a comprehensive training strategy for the functionaries of Anganwadi Services. Training is imparted to the functionaries on a regular basis.
• Anganwadi Workers are provided job training for 26 working days. During this job training, the knowledge, understanding and skills of Anganwadi Workers on various Acts, Policies, Programmes related to women and children, setting up vibrant Anganwadi Centres, conducting Early Childhood Care and Education activities, health & nutrition care of children and women, Community Mobilisation, Awareness, Advocacy & IEC, Management of AWC and hands on experience through supervised practice to work in Anganwadi Centres are developed.
• Moreover, a robust ICT enabled platform named Poshantracker has been designed to capture real-time data on implementation and monitoring of Anganwadi Services across the country.
• The Poshan Tracker management application provides a 360 – degree view of the activities of the Anganwadi Centre (AWC), service deliveries of Anganwadi Workers (AWWs) and complete beneficiary management.

Conclusion:

• Anganwadis, the world’s biggest supplier of early childhood care, play a critical role in improving the lives of children in India. We need to spend more in anganwadis and use proven innovative approaches to enhance these results.

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