Creating 'Joyful' Anganwadis

Anganwadi workers (AWWs) are the front line and pivotal anchors of India’s Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), the largest outreach programme in the world. Yet, their efforts are often not recognised adequately even when you hear of innovative efforts such as those by the Pune Zilla Parishad (ZP) in Maharashtra. It has chalked out a child and learning-friendly teaching model that has pushed up attendance in the anganwadis by nearly 4,000 children in three months.

Anganwadi workers (AWWs) are the front line and pivotal anchors of India’s Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), the largest outreach programme in the world. Yet, their efforts are often not recognised adequately even when you hear of innovative efforts such as those by the Pune Zilla Parishad (ZP) in Maharashtra. It has chalked out a child and learning-friendly teaching model that has pushed up attendance in the anganwadis by nearly 4,000 children in three months. So impressed is the National Institute of Public Cooperation and Child Development (NIPCCD) of the union Ministry of Women and Child Development that it wants the framework to be modified and emulated by other states. While the committee that put together the winning syllabus for the pre-primary children in Pune deserves fulsome praise, it is the AWWs and anganwadi helpers (AWHs) who deserve the most commendation. Anyone with even a nodding acquaintance with the objectives of the ICDS and the work and pay conditions of these workers would realise the odds they face.

The ICDS’ objectives and aims have a mind-boggling range. AWWs, assisted by the helpers, are supposed to look after contraceptive counselling, neonatal and postnatal care, nutrition supplementation, vaccination, non-formal pre-primary education covering children in the 0 to 6 years range and women in the 15 to 49 years category. The scheme covers 7.5 crore children and nearly 1.8 crore pregnant and lactating mothers in approximately 7,000 blocks in the country. For all practical purposes, the AWWs are community activists who are the first line of contact for the beneficiaries of the government’s welfare programmes. There are many cases where the AWWs have been instrumental in preventing child marriages. And yet, the nearly 12 lakh AWWs and 11 lakh AWHs working in 13 lakh anganwadi centres and mini-centres in the country are not government employees. They are “honorary” or “part-time” workers who receive an honorarium. Since their pay is shared between the centre and the respective state/union territory government, the AWWs get Rs 5,000 a month and the AWHs receive Rs 3,000. Even this paltry amount is not paid in time and these women have to hold protests and dharnas demanding pending wages of six and even 11 months. Paradoxically, while these women workers looking after children and women from the most vulnerable sections of society are accountable to many bureaucratic masters, when it comes to their pay and benefits, despite working directly under the Ministry of Women and Child Development, they are deemed “voluntary workers”. They lack training (the number of AWWs training centres is pitifully small) and support in terms of teaching materials.