Anganwadi workers are ‘Soul’ of 47-yr old ICDS of GoI but why are they not regular employees?

In view of nature of role of AWWs, it is feasible to declare them as regular Government employees?

Why engage over 25 Lakh AWW/AWH on honorarium & not as regular employees when their job is regular type?

DAYA SAGAR

In terms of Information given in a written reply in Rajya Sabha on March 23, 2022 by the Union Minister of Women and Child Development, Smriti Zubin Irani and shared in media by Government of India as regards Implementation of Anganwadi Services Scheme (now renamed as Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0), a Centrally Sponsored Scheme implemented by States/UTs, s for providing a package of six services, namely, (i) Supplementary Nutrition; (ii) Pre-school Non-formal Education; (iii) Nutrition & Health Education; (iv) Immunization; (v) Health Check-up; and (vi) Referral Services to all eligible beneficiaries, namely, children in the age group of 0-6 years, pregnant women and lactating mothers through the platform of Anganwadi Centres across the country. It was also conveyed that various interventions are being taken from time to time for effective implementation of the Scheme and ensuring that the intended benefits reach the last mile beneficiary for which Streamlined guidelines were issued on 13.01.2021 and a robust ICT enabled platform named Poshan tracker has been designed to capture real-time data on implementation and monitoring of Anganwadi Services across the country which provides a 360 – degree view of the activities of the Anganwadi Centre (AWC), service deliveries of Anganwadi Workers (AWWs) and complete beneficiary management. Going by what Union Minister of Women and Child Development, Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani had opined it could be well inferred that GOI intents to take this 47 year old programme in more activated mission mode. One of the very important and core functionary of the programme (AWC of ICDS) so far has been the Anganwadi Worker ( AWW) and still will remain. But this Functionary has remained unaddressed in terms of the job security / wages for which the AWW community has been requesting and representing for decades.
Before 23-03-2022 also in a written reply to a Lok Sabha question on 07-02-2020 Minister of Women and Child Development, Smriti Zubin Irani had informed (i) that the Central Government is providing honorarium of Rs 4,500 per month to Anganwadi Workers (AWWs), Rs 3,500 per month to AWWs at mini-AWCs & Rs 2,250 per month to Anganwadi Helpers (AWHs) adding that (i) there was no proposal under consideration to increase the honorarium of Anganwadi Workers (ii) that AWWs/AWHs are honorary workers who come forward to render their services on payment of monthly honorarium, (iii) in view of the very nature of the role of Anganwadi Workers/Helpers, it is not feasible to declare them as regular/permanent employees and (iv) 14 Out of 16 recommendations /observations made by the Dr. Chandresh Kumari Committee have been implemented by the govt {Eighth Report 15th Lok Sabha) of the Committee on Empowerment of Women on the subject “Working Conditions of Anganwadi Workers ?pertaining to Ministry of Women & Child Development presented to Lok Sabha & Rajya Sabha on 10/08/ 2011 ).
How far the opinion given by the Minister on 07-02-2020 disposing the requests for increase in honorarium / wages of AWWs and making AWWs regular government employees concluding (i) that AWWs/AWHs are honorary workers who come forward to render their services on payment of monthly honorarium, (ii) in view of the very nature of the role of Anganwadi Workers/Helpers, it is not feasible to declare them as regular/permanent employees is justified needs to be reconsidered by the Ministry keeping in view the references made in from “2017- Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) Manual “for District- Level Functionaries as regards the duties & role of the AWWs” where it is said that (4.2 Role of Functionaries at Village Level / Cluster Level & Block Level) that Anganwadi level, is the grassroots level of the project implementation which is manned by Anganwadi Worker assisted by Mini Anganwadi Worker and / or Anganwadi helper. The registers and records to me maintained by the AWW are listed as : Registers & Records by Anganwadi: oFamily Register oSupplementary Food Stock Register oSupplementary Food Distribution Register oPre-School Education Register oPregnancy and Delivery Register oImmunisation and Village Health and Nutrition Day (VHND) oVitamin A Biannual Rounds Register oHome Visits Planner oReferrals oSummaries (Monthly & Annual) oWeight Records of Children. The responsibility to be taken by AWW both as regards operation of the AWC as well as building up the ground data / review information / shortfalls/ indicators /performance /limitations data for overall assessment / monitoring of the programmes / organise non formal preschool activities for children of 3 yr-6 yr could well be weighted with the number and type of registers and records mentioned herein. More favourable points in support of the AWWs demand for increase in emoluments and treating them as regular employees could be sensed by any one by contents of the handbook as regards roles and responsibilities.
The AWWs responsibility and workload appears no less than that of a Jr Clerk in Govt. Department ( although Jr. clerks are not supposed to shoulder direct responsibilities ) for which the pay scale Level could be L-4 VII PC 25500-81100 ( old 5200-20200 GP 2400). To be more conservative even if Grade is taken as 5200-20200 GP 1800 old (Level-2 VII PC 19900-63200) still minimum wages& allowances per month as on 01-07-2022 with 38% DA, 9 % HRA , Rs.900×1.38 TPA would be approximately Rs. 32485/pm (19900+DA 7562+ HRA 3781 + 1242 pm).
The Minister had also informed the Rajya Sabha on 23-03-2022 that the reference Scheme ‘on date’ operated through a network of 7075 fully operational Projects and 13.89 lakh AWCs as on June, 2021 through 13.14 lakhs Anganwadi Workers and 11.74 Anganwadi Helpers to 906.17 lakh beneficiaries of which 736.91 lakh are children under six and 169.26 lakh are pregnant women & lactating mothers. Till June 2021, a total number of 200.44 lakh children of 3-6 years were covered under pre-school education of which 102.40 lakhs were boys and 98.04 lakhs were girls. Government has even designed a robust ICT enabled platform named Poshan tracker to capture real-time data on implementation and monitoring of Anganwadi Services across the country. The Poshan Tracker management application is to provide a 360 – degree view of the activities of the Anganwadi Centre (AWC), service deliveries of Anganwadi Workers (AWWs) and complete beneficiary management.
So going by the status of the needs of the programme , socio- economic needs of the rural / suburban Indian masses / urban weaker habitations and intentions of the Government to take it further with more inputs the NDA-III in Delhi ( India ) must reconsider for increasing the emoluments of the AWWs and treating them as regular government employees with social/ economic security like other regular government employees since it is not fair for the Government to say that in view of the very nature of the role of Anganwadi Workers/Helpers, it is not feasible to declare them as regular/permanent employees.
(The author is Sr Journalist, social activist and analyst J&K affairs [email protected]).