Lok Sabha Question No. 450 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-07-21
Subject: Mini Anganwadi Centres
Ministry: WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: Bhavana Gawali (Patil), C.N. Annadurai, Ganesan Selvam, Manjulata Mandal, Dhanush M Kumar, Krupal Balaji Tumane

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 450

TO BE ANSWERED ON 21.07.2023

## MINI ANGANWADI CENTRES

## †450.  SHRIMATI BHAVANA PUNDALIKRAO GAWALI:

SHRI C.N. ANNADURAI:

SHRI SELVAM G.:

SHRIMATI MANJULATA MANDAL:

SHRI DHANUSH M. KUMAR:

SHRI KRUPAL BALAJI TUMANE:

Will the Minister of WOMEN AND CHILD be pleased to state:

- (a) the guidelines for setting up of Mini Anganwadi Centres (MACs), indicating the number  of  MACs  presently  functional  and  the  facilities  provided  therein, State/UT-wise;
- (b) whether the Government has fixed any population norms for setting up MACs and enhanced amount of honorarium of Anganwadi workers therein and if so, the details thereof;
- (c) whether proposals have been received from States for setting up more MACs, if so, the details thereof and action taken thereon;
- (d) the steps taken to upgrade MACs into full-fledged Anganwadi Centres in timebound manner;
- (e) whether the Government proposes to allocate additional funds, increase cost estimate for construction of permanent buildings and provide basic infrastructure for upgradation of such MACs, if so, the details thereof; and
- (f) whether  the  Government  has  taken  cognizance  of  the  irregularities  in  the functioning  of  these  centres  and  conducted  any  inspection  to  check  their functioning and utilization of funds, if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT (SHRIMATI SMRITI ZUBIN IRANI)

(a) & (b) The setting up of Mini-Anganwadi Centres is based on the population norms, as given below:

|                                                                  | Population/ No. of Mini-AWC   |   Population/ No. of Mini-AWC |
|------------------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------|-------------------------------|
| Rural/Urban Projects                                             | 150-400                       |                             1 |
| Tribal/Riverine/Desert, Hilly and other difficult areas/Projects | 150-300                       |                             1 |

Currently,  there  are  1,16,288  operational  Mini  Anganwadi  Centres  running  in  the country.  State-wise  statement  containing  number  of  mini  Anganwadi  Centres  is  at Annexure .

A package of following six services is provided through the Anganwadi Centres:

- i. Supplementary Nutrition (SNP)
- ii. Pre-school Non-formal Education,
- iii. Nutrition & Health Education,
- iv. Immunization,
- v. Health Check-up, and
- vi. Referral Services

Three  of  the  six  services,  viz.,  Immunization,  Health  check-up  and  Referral Services  are  related  to  health  and  are  provided  through  NRHM  &  Public  Health Infrastructure.

AWWs/AWHs  being  honorary  workers  are  paid  a  monthly  honorarium  as decided by the Government from time to time. Lastly, on 01.10.2018, Government of India has enhanced the honorarium of AWWs at main-AWCs from ₹3,000/- to ₹ 4,500/per month; AWWs at mini- AWCs from ₹ 2,250/- to ₹ 3,500/- per month; AWHs from ₹1,500/- to ₹2,250/- per month. Performance linked incentive of ₹250/- per month is paid to AWHs and @ ₹500/- per month to AWWs. In addition, States/UTs are also paying additional monetary incentives/ honorarium to these functionaries from their own resources.

- (c)        In the recent past, no demand for mini Anganwadi Centre has been received.

(d) to (f)    Keeping in view the importance of nutrition and Early Childhood Care and Education  (ECCE)  services  delivery,  this  Ministry  has  taken  a  policy  decision  to upgrade  all Mini-Anganwadi  Centres  into regular  Anganwadi  Centreswith  the availability  of  an  Anganwadi  Helper.    Therefore,  all  States/UTs  (having  miniAnganwadi Centres)have been requested to send their proposals to the Ministry for upgradation of these mini Anganwadi Centres to main/regular Anganwadi Centre. As on date, a total of 5453 mini AWCs (2836 in Odisha, 1615 in Gujarat and  1002 in Karnataka) have already been approved for upgradation to main-AWCs.

For development/upgradation of infrastructure at Anganwadi Centres and for effective monitoring of AWCs, following measures have been taken:

- (i)        For construction of AWC buildings across the country under Mahatma Gandhi National  Rural  Employment  Guarantee  Scheme  (MGNREGS) in convergence with Anganwadi Services (now known Saksham Anganwadi and POSHAN 2.0 Scheme), construction cost has been revised from Rs.7 lakh to Rs.12 lakh per unit under the revised Scheme - Poshan 2.0,.

(ii)        Under  Swachhta  Action  Plan,  Rs.10,000/-  per  AWC  has  been  provided  for drinking water facilities in  and Rs.12,000/-per AWC for toilet facilities, which has now been revised to Rs.17,000/- per AWC and Rs.36,000/- per AWC respectively.

- (iii)      Grants are sanctioned for purchase of water filter, furniture, equipment, etc.

(iv)       Anganwadi  Workers  (AWWs)  have  been  provided  with  Smart  Phones  for efficient service delivery.

(v)       Streamlined guidelines were issued on 13.01.2021, covering several aspects such as  quality  assurance,  roles  and  responsibilities  of  duty  holders,  procedure for procurement, integrating AYUSH concepts.

(vi)   'Poshan Tracker', a robust ICT enabled platform, has been launched in March 2021 to ensure real-time monitoring of provisioning of supplementary nutrition by use of data analytics for prompt supervision and management of services.  The system shall enable real time monitoring and tracking of all AWCs, AWWs and beneficiaries on defined indicators.

Further, time to time States/UTs are advised to utilise funds allocated under various  components  of  Anganwadi  Services  as  per  the  cost  norms  for  better implementation of the scheme

**********

## Lok Sabha USQ No. 450 for answer on 21.07.2023

The  State/UT-wise  number  of  sanctioned  mini  Anganwadi  Centres  (as  per  the information received from States/UTs in APIP Meeting for Saksham Anganwadi and POSHAN 2.0 for the Financial Year 2022-23) is tabulated as below:

0

0

512

539

129

0

0

0

0

0

31

0

70

0

0

0

0

0

|   S. No. | State/UT                         |   No of sanctioned Mini AWCs |   No of operational mini AWCs |
|----------|----------------------------------|------------------------------|-------------------------------|
|        1 | Andhra Pradesh                   |                         6837 |                          6837 |
|        2 | Arunachal Pradesh                |                            0 |                             0 |
|        3 | Assam                            |                         5425 |                          5290 |
|        4 | Bihar                            |                         7115 |                          7006 |
|        5 | Chhattisgarh                     |                         5814 |                          5650 |
|        6 | Goa                              |                            0 |                             0 |
|        7 | Gujarat                          |                         1800 |                          1800 |
|        8 | Haryana                          |                          512 |                           512 |
|        9 | Himachal Pradesh                 |                          539 |                           539 |
|       10 | Jharkhand                        |                         2551 |                          2551 |
|       11 | Karnataka                        |                         3331 |                          3331 |
|       12 | Kerala                           |                          129 |                           129 |
|       13 | Madhya Pradesh                   |                        12670 |                         12670 |
|       14 | Maharashtra                      |                        13011 |                         12971 |
|       15 | Manipur                          |                         1552 |                          1552 |
|       16 | Meghalaya                        |                         1266 |                          1266 |
|       17 | Mizoram                          |                            0 |                             0 |
|       18 | Nagaland                         |                            0 |                             0 |
|       19 | Odisha                           |                        10416 |                         10416 |
|       20 | Punjab                           |                         1240 |                          1233 |
|       21 | Rajasthan                        |                         6204 |                          6095 |
|       22 | Sikkim                           |                            0 |                             0 |
|       23 | Tamil Nadu                       |                         4940 |                          4940 |
|       24 | Telangana                        |                         3989 |                          3989 |
|       25 | Tripura                          |                            0 |                             0 |
|       26 | Uttar Pradesh                    |                        22290 |                         22290 |
|       27 | Uttarakhand                      |                         5120 |                          5120 |
|       28 | West Bengal                      |                            0 |                             0 |
|       29 | A & N Islands                    |                           31 |                            31 |
|       30 | Chandigarh                       |                            0 |                             0 |
|       31 | Dadra & N Haveli and Daman & Diu |                           70 |                            70 |
|       32 | Delhi                            |                            0 |                             0 |
|       33 | Jammu & Kashmir                  |                            0 |                             0 |
|       34 | Ladakh                           |                            0 |                             0 |
|       35 | Lakshadweep                      |                            0 |                             0 |
|       36 | Puducherry                       |                            0 |                             0 |