Anganwadi

Anganwadi is a government sponsored child-care and mother-care center in India. It caters to children in the 0-6 age group. The word means "courtyard shelter" in Hindi. They were started by the Indian government in 1975 as part of the Integrated Child Development Services program to combat child hunger and malnutrition.

Coverage

There are an estimated 650,000 anganwadi centers employing 1.8 million mostly-female workers and helpers across the country. They provide outreach services to poor families in need of immunization, healthy food, clean water, clean toilets and a learning environment for infants, toddlers and pre-schoolers. They also provide similar services for expectant and nursing mothers. According to government figures, anganwadis reach about 33 million children and 6 million pregnant or lactating women.

Anganwadis are India's primary tool against the scourges of child malnourishment, infant mortality and curbing preventable diseases such as polio. While infant mortality has declined in recent years, India has the world's largest population of malnourished or under-nourished children. It is estimated that about 47% of children aged 0-3 are under-nourished per international standards.

Chilren from poor (Below Poverty Line) families, especially those from Scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, are considered most at-risk.

Challenges and solutions

There have been public policy discussions over whether to make anganwadis universally available across the country to all eligible children and mothers. This would require significant increases in budgetary allocation and a rise in anganwadis centers to over 1.6 million.

Anganwadis are staffed by officers and their helpers, who are typically women from poor families. The workers do not have permanent jobs with comprehensive retirement benefits like other government staff. Worker protests (by the All India Anganwadi Workers Federation) and public debates on this topic are ongoing. There are periodic reports of corruption and crimes against women in some anganwadi centers. There are legal and societal issues when anganwadi-serviced children fall sick or die.

In announcing the 2008-2009 Budget, Indian Finance Minister P Chidambaram stated that salaries would be increased for anganwadi workers to Rs 1500 per month and helpers to Rs 750 per month. In March 2008 there is debate about whether packaged foods, such as biscuits, should become part of the food served. Detractors, including Nobel Prize winner Amartya Sen, disagreed saying it will become the only food consumed by the children. Options for increasing partnership with the private sector are continuing.

International efforts

Unicef and the UN Millennium Development Goals of reducing infant mortality and improving maternal care are the impetus for increasing focus on the Anganwadis.

Workers and helpers are expected to be trained per WHO standards.

References

To be added