Anganwadi Services is one of the flagship programmes of the Government of India providing early childhood care and development of the beneficiaries i.e children in the age group of 0-6 years, pregnant women and lactating mothers through a large network of Anganwadi workers (AWW) and Helpers (AWH). The following benefits are being provided to the Anganwadi Workers and Helpers:

• The AWWs and AWHs are paid fixed honorarium per month as decided by the Government from time to time. The Government has enhanced the honorarium w.e.f. 01.10.2018 to AWWs 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; and introduced performance linked incentive of ₹ 250/- per month to AWHs and @ ₹ 500/- per month to AWWs.
• In addition to the honorarium paid by the Government of India, most of the States/UTs are also giving monetary incentives to these workers out of their own resources.

• Leave: AWWs/AWHs are allowed paid absence of 180 days of maternity leave and 20 days annual leave.

• Award: In order to motivate AWWs/and give recognition to good voluntary work, a Scheme of Award for AWWs has been introduced, both at the National and State level. The Award comprises Rs.50,000/- cash and a Citation to AWW and Rs.40,000/- to AWHs.
• Uniform: Government has made a provision for a set of two Uniform (saree/suit per annum @ Rs.500/- each).
• State Governments/UT Administrations have been requested to encourage eligible AWWs/AWHs to get themselves enrolled under the Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Mandhan (PM-SYM) Pension Scheme on voluntary basis in order to get assured monthly pension on attaining the age of 60 years.
• Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package (PMGKP) Insurance Scheme for Health Care Workers fighting COVID-19 with personal accident cover of Rs. 50 Lakh has also been extended to Anganwadi Workers/Helpers who may have been in direct contact and care of COVID-19 patients and may be at risk of being impacted by this, subject to fulfillment of the certain conditions.

Under POSHAN Abhiyaan, Aanganwadi workers (AWWs) have been technologically empowered with the provision of smartphones procured through Government e-Market (GeM) for efficient service delivery. A total of 11.03 lakhs Smartphones have been procured by States/UTs which includes the State of Chhattisgarh. The State/UT wise details of Smartphones procured is at Annexure I.

The mobile application of POSHAN Abhiyaan digitizes and automates physical registers used by Aanganwadi workers. This saves the time of AWWs and AWHs, and improves the quality of their work while simultaneously allowing them real-time monitoring.

At present, no Committee has been constituted for the review of different kinds of benefits including honorarium provided to the staff working in Anganwadi Kendras.

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

Annexure I

STATUS REPORT OF SMARTPHONE PROCUREMENT:

****

BY/AS