Total 13.96 lakh Anganwadis are registered under the Poshan Tracker applicationas on 30^th June 2023.  The State/UT wise number of Anganwadis in the country and the number of Anganwadi Workers (AWWs) and Anganwadi helpers (AWHs) working therein, as per Poshan Tracker, is at Annexure I.

The year wise number of Anganwadis and employees therein during the last five years is at Annexure II.

IT systems have been leveraged to strengthen and bring about transparency in nutrition delivery support systems at the Anganwadi centres. The ‘Poshan Tracker’ application was rolled out on 1^st March, 2021 as an important governance tool. The Poshan Tracker facilitates monitoring and tracking of all AWCs, AWWs and beneficiaries on defined indicators. Technology under Poshan Tracker is being leveraged for dynamic identification of stunting, wasting, under-weight prevalence among children. Further, under POSHAN Abhiyaan, for the first time, a digital revolution was ushered in when the Anganwadi Centres were equipped with mobile devices. The mobile application has also facilitated digitization and automation of physical registers used by AWWs that helps in improving their quality of work. Poshan Tracker is available in 22 languages including Hindi and English. It has facilitated near real time data collection for Anganwadi Services such as, daily attendance, ECCE, Provision of Hot Cooked Meal (HCM)/Take Home Ration (THR-not raw ration), Growth Measurement etc. The App also offers counselling videos on key behaviours and services which help disseminate messages on birth preparedness, delivery, post-natal care, breastfeeding and complementary feeding. Geo-mapping and onboarding of AWCs in PM Gati Shakti portal is being undertaken to enable focused interventions. Further, to ensure last mile tracking of service delivery SMS alerts to beneficiaries have been introduced on delivery of THR.

For the welfare of Anganwadi Workers/ Anganwadi Helpers (AWWs/AWHs), the following facilities are being provided:

 

1. Honorarium: From 1^st October, 2018, Government of India has enhanced the honorarium of AWWs at main-AWCs from Rs.3,000/- to Rs.4,500/- per month; AWWs at mini- AWCs from Rs.2,250/- to Rs.3,500/- per month; AWHs from Rs.1,500/- to Rs.2,250/- per month; and introduced performance linked incentive of Rs.250/- per month to AWHs and Rs.500 to AWWs. In addition, States/UTs are also paying additional monetary incentives/honorarium to these functionaries from their own resources which vary from State to State.

 

2. Improvement in infrastructure: Under the revised Scheme, there is a provision of upgradation of 2 lakh Anganwadi Centres (AWCs) as SakshamAnganwadis with improved/upgraded infrastructure in Aspirational Districts @ 40,000 AWCs per annum upto 2025-26. In 2022-23, 41,192 AWCs have been identified for upgradation with inter alia LEDs and smart learning and teaching aids. Besides, the cost of drinking water facilities and toilets at Anganwadi Centres have been increased from Rs.10,000/- to Rs.17,000/- and Rs.12,000/- to Rs.36,000/- respectively. For construction of Anganwadi Centres in convergence with MGNREGS, construction cost has been revised from Rs.7 lakh to Rs.12 lakh per unit. Keeping in view the importance of nutrition and Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) services delivery, it has been decided to upgrade all Mini-Anganwadi Centres to main/regular Anganwadi Centres with the availability of an Anganwadi Helper.

 

3. Leveraging IT through Poshan Tracker: Under the revised Scheme, IT systems have been leveraged to strengthen and bring about transparency in delivery support systems at Anganwadi Centres. Anganwadi Workers have been technologically empowered with smartphones (approx 11 lakh). The mobile application has digitized and automated the physical registers used by AWWs which has also helped in improving their quality of work.

 

4. Promotion Avenues: 50% posts of AWWs shall be filled by promotion of Anganwadi Helpers with 5 years of experience and 50% posts of supervisors shall be filled by promotion of Anganwadi Workers with 5 years of experience subject to fulfillment of other criteria.

 

5. Capacity Building: NeGD is regularly conducting field level trainings/workshops directly for Anganwadi Workers regarding use of the Poshan Tracker Application. Multiple rounds of trainings have been held both virtually and physically, in various districts across the country. Further, under Mission Poshan 2.0, PoshanBhiPadhai programme has been launched which focuses on capacity building of Anganwadi workers to equip them to deliver quality early education.

 

6. Social Security Insurance Schemes: This Ministry has provided insurance benefits to Anganwadi Workers and Helpers under Pradhan MantriJeevanJyotiBimaYojana (PMJJBY) for life cover of Rs.2.00 lakh (covers life risk, death due to any reason) to AWWs/AWHs in the age group of 18 to 50 years and Pradhan Mantri Suraksha BimaYojana for accidental cover of Rs.2.00 Lakh (accidental death and permanent full disability) /Rs. 1.00 Lakh (partial but permanent disability) to AWWs and AWHs in the age group of 18-59 years.

 

Now, this Ministry has decided to provide insurance cover under PMJJBY and PMSBY to AWWs/AWHs through their bank accounts and the funds towards premium payment will be released to the States/UTs on the prescribed cost sharing ratio.

 

7. Insurance cover under Pradhan MantriGaribKalyan Package: Anganwadi Workers and AnganwadiHelpers who have been engaged with the Covid-19 related tasks, have been provided with insurance cover of Rs.50 lakh under "Pradhan MantriGaribKalyan Package" with certain conditions.

 

8. Pradhan MantriShram Yogi Maan-Dhan (PM-SYM): State Governments/UT Administrations have been requested to encourage eligible AWWs/AWHs to get themselves enrolled under the Pradhan MantriShram Yogi Mandhan (PM-SYM) Pension Scheme on voluntary.

 

The age of entry to the Scheme is 18-40 years. PM-SYM is a voluntary and contributory pension scheme on 50:50 basis where prescribed age-specific contribution shall be made by the beneficiary and the matching contribution by the Central Government for availing the assured pension of ₹3,000/- per month on attaining the age of 60 years.

 

Annexure I

State/UT	Total AWC Operational	AWW	AWH
Andhra Pradesh	55615	55173	29218
Arunachal Pradesh	5642	4774	1676
Assam	61738	60508	47481
Bihar	114989	112510	81542
Chhattisgarh	51886	51071	25270
Goa	1262	1236	956
Gujarat	53027	52289	45334
Haryana	25963	24512	12524
Himachal Pradesh	18925	18757	17647
Jharkhand	38431	37980	28342
Karnataka	65909	65427	55548
Kerala	33115	33103	30658
Madhya Pradesh	97135	96099	39459
Maharashtra	110429	108745	56331
Manipur	11509	11493	9879
Meghalaya	5896	5895	3861
Mizoram	2244	2239	2063
Nagaland	3980	3936	3183
Odisha	74157	73744	54256
Punjab	27314	26135	13040
Rajasthan	61873	61351	33717
Sikkim	1308	1308	1248
Tamil Nadu	54442	43840	40785
Telangana	35693	34437	25862
Tripura	10146	10105	9445
Uttar Pradesh	189024	184174	120425
Uttarakhand	20088	19763	5690
West Bengal	122442	109454	98787
Andaman & Nicobar Islands	720	710	422
Dadra & Nagar Haveli - Daman & Diu	405	402	331
Delhi	10899	10431	10423
J&K	28119	27069	15630
Ladakh	1144	1139	780
Lakshadweep	90	62	6
Puducherry	855	807	260
UT-Chandigarh	450	426	443
Total	1396864	1351104	922522

 

Annexure II

Year	No. of operational Anganwadi Centres	No. of AWWs	No. of AWHs
March 2018	1363021	1293945	1166857
March 2019	1372872	1302617	1184954
March 2020	1381376	1326069	1183202
March, 2021	1387432	1328617	1179303
March, 2022	1391004	1314433	1167206

 

This information was given by the Minister of Women and Child Development, Smt. SmritiZubinIrani, in a written reply in Lok Sabha today.

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