Under Anganwadi Services a package of six services, namely, (i) Supplementary Nutrition; (ii) Pre-school Non-formal Education; (iii) Nutrition & Health Education; (iv) Immunization; (v) Health Check-up; and (vi) Referral Services has been provided to all eligible beneficiaries, namely, children in the age group of 0-6 years, pregnant women and lactating mothers through the platform of Anganwadi Centres across the country. Three of the services viz. Immunization, Health Check-up and Referral Services are related to health and are provided through NRHM & Public Health Infrastructure.

Details of the number of beneficiaries covered under the Scheme during last three years and current year are given below:

 

Financial Year	Children (below six years)	Pregnant Women & Lactating mothers	TOTAL
2018-19	70374122	17186549	87560671
2019-20	68630173	16874975	85505148
2020-21	67509696	15673127	83182823
2021-22*	73691025	16925928	90616953

(*As on 30.06.2021)

 

As per the recent report of NFHS-5 (2019-21), the nutrition indicators for children under 5 years have improved as compared with NFHS-4 (2015-16). Stunting, Wasting and Underweight has reduced from 38.4% to 35.5%, 21.0% to 19.3% and 35.8% to 32.1% respectively.

 

For the development of infrastructure at Anganwadi Centres, several measures have been taken for improving facilities at Anganwadi Centres (AWCs):

 

(i)      Revised joint guidelines were issued by Ministries of Women & Child Development, Rural Development and Panchayati Raj for construction of 4 lakh AWC buildings across the country under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in convergence with Anganwadi Services (ICDS Scheme).

 

(ii)     Under Swachhta Action Plan, Rs.10,000/-per AWC is provided for drinking water facilities and Rs.12,000/-per AWC for toilet facilities.

 

(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 and Data management and Monitoring through ‘Poshan Tracker’ for transparency, efficiency and accountability in delivery of Supplementary Nutrition.

 

This information was given by the Union Minister of Women and Child Development, Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani, in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.

 

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