Lok Sabha Question No. 3854 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-08-11
Subject: Government’s Initiatives to Improve Anganwadi Centres in Tribal Areas of Rajasthan
Ministry: WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: Kanakmal Katara

## GOVERNEMNT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO 3854

TO BE ANSWERED ON 11.08.2023

## GOVERNMENT'S INITIATIVES TO IMPROVE ANGANWADI CENTRES IN TRIBAL AREAS OF RAJASTHAN

## 3854.  SHRI KANAKMAL KATARA:

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

- (a) whether  the  Government  has  taken  cognizance  of  the  fact  that  many Anganwadi Centres do not have proper buildings and infrastructure in the tribal areas of Rajasthan;
- (b) if  so, the steps taken by the Government to address the said issues and the scheme of the Government to establish proper buildings, infrastructure for the said centre in future;
- (c) whether the Government has taken steps to provide necessary gadgets and internet data packs to Anganwadi Workers in tribal and hilly areas to update information on a real-time basis on Apps like Poshan Tracker; and
- (d) if  so,  the  details  thereof  and  if  not,  whether  there  is  any  proposal  of  the Government in this regard?

## ANSWER

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

- (a)  &  (b):  For development/upgradation of infrastructure at Anganwadi Centres and for effective monitoring of AWCs, following measures have been taken:
- i. Under the Mission Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 guidelines,   2 lakh Anganwadi Centres (AWCs) @ 40,000 AWCs per year shall be strengthened, upgraded across the country as Saksham Anganwadis for improving nutrition delivery including Poshan Vatikas  upto 2025-26.  In 2022-23, 41,192 AWCs have been approved for upgradation with provision for LEDs and smart learning and teaching aids.
- ii. Keeping  in  view  the  importance  of  nutrition  and  Early  Childhood  Care  and Education (ECCE) services delivery, it has been decided to upgrade all MiniAnganwadi Centres to main/regular Anganwadi Centres with the availability of an Anganwadi Helper.
- iii. 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.

- iv. Under Swachhta Action Plan, Rs.10,000/- per AWC was 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.
- v. Anganwadi  Workers  (AWWs)  have  been  provided  with  Smart  Phones  for efficient service delivery and with data recharge pack of Rs 2000/- per annum.
- vi. 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.
- vii. '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,  from time  to  time  States/UTs  are  being  advised  to  utilise  funds allocated under various components of Anganwadi Services as per the cost norms for better implementation of the scheme.

(c)  &  (d):  Under  Poshan  2.0,  for  efficient  service  delivery  and  monitoring  of  the Anganwadi  services,  the  Anganwadi  workers  (AWWs)  have  been  technologically empowered  with  the  provision  of  smartphones  procured  through  Government  eMarket (GeM). Internet connectivity charges for AWWs are provided @₹2000/- per annum per AWW. These frontline functionaries render their services in rural, urban, tribal  and  hilly  areas  of  the  country.  Near  about  11  lakh  Smartphones  have  been procured by States/UTs.

The  mobile  application  of  Poshan  2.0  named  as  Poshan  Tracker  digitizes physical registers used by Anganwadi workers. This saves the time of AWWs and AWHs, and improves the quality of their work while simultaneously allowing them realtime monitoring. The Anganwadi Workers periodically measure height and weight of children upto the age of 6 years and upload that data in the application.

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