Anganwadi beneficiaries

Anganwadi beneficiaries

For every 100 Anganwadi beneficiaries in the country, only seven are in urban areas, according to the government’s response to a Right to Information (RTI). This is primarily because of a severe lack of anganwadis in cities, leading to poor coverage of the government’s flagship program in early childhood development.

About Anganwadi

• Anganwadis or day­care centers are set up under the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) by the Women and Child Development Ministry to provide a package of six services. The services include supplementary nutrition; pre­school non-­formal education; immunization, nutrition, and health education; as well as referral services. The aim of the scheme is to reduce infant mortality and child malnutrition. Beneficiaries include children in the age group of six months to six years, and pregnant women and lactating mothers.

While there was a total of 7.95 crore beneficiaries of the Anganwadi scheme in the country, as on September 30, 2019, only 55 lakh were registered at urban anganwadis, according to the government's reply on January 28 to the RTI plea.

Reason

• This is primarily because of an acute paucity of Anganwadi centers in urban areas. There are as many as 13.79 lakh anganwadis operational across the country, out of which 9.31 lakh centers are linked to the government’s web­enabled data entry system called Rapid Reporting System. Of those anganwadis that can be monitored online, 1.09 lakh centers are in urban areas and the remaining 8.22 lakh were in rural areas of the country, according to the RTI reply
• As per Census 2011, 32% of India’s 1.2 billion population live in cities, though experts have said that if the definition of an urban settlement was broadened, the share of urban population will be much higher. A recent first-of-­its kind pan-­India study on nutrition status, the Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey 2016­18, found that 35% of children under five were stunted and 17% were wasted. It also said 22% of children in the age group of 5­9 years were stunted and 23% were thin for their age. Also, 20% of those in the 10­-19 years age group were thin for their age. 

Source: The Hindu