Beneficiaries of Anganwadi Dropped by 2 crores in 7 years

 According to data submitted by the Ministry of Women and Child Development in Parliament, the number of beneficiaries under the government's "Anganwadi" plan has been reduced by nearly 20 million.

Highlights:

♦ During 2014-2015, approximately 1.4 million grams of Anganwadi Center recruited approximately 1.045 billion pregnant women, lactating mothers and children between 6 months and 6 years old. By March 2020, this number has fallen to 85.5 billion.

♦ The number of children also dropped from 8.49 million in 2014-2015 to 6.86 million in March 2020.

♦ The number of pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers dropped from 19.95 million in 2014-15 to 16.68 million in March 2020. The government did not emphasize the reasons for this decline.

♦ Anganwadi is a kind of rural childcare center in India. These centers were established by the Indian government in 1975. These centers were established under the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) program to eliminate child hunger and malnutrition.

♦ The Integrated Child Development Program was launched in 1975. Although the Morarji Desai government suspended the plan in 1978, it restarted the plan in the Tenth Five-Year Plan. 

♦ The plan includes a package of six services, which are managed in different Anganwadi centers. Services include immunization, supplementary nutrition, pre-school non-formal education, health check, health education and referral services.