In a move towards digitisation, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia distributed 10000 high-end smartphones among Anganwadi workers at the Indira Gandhi Stadium on August 7.

Smart Phones For Anganwadi Workers

The smartphones have pre-installed applications that would enable Aadhaar-based registration of workers, record their attendance, register the opening and closing time of the centre, and sharing daily photographs and details of the work.

The government will now have direct access to all the information as the phones will be connected to the government database. This will help the government to get rid of maintaining monthly registers.

This initiative is expected to monitor a real-time mechanism of the status at all centres and ensure a better quality of work and livelihood for the workers. 

Integrated Child Development Services

To bring the anganwadis at par with the private playschools, Delhi Government also launched the “Early Childhood Care Curriculum” for anganwadis, where children from the poor economic background will have access to all modern facilities and infrastructure.

“Across the world, it has been acknowledged that 80 per cent of the children’s brain development takes place by the age of 6. But India has continued to neglect early childhood care. Delhi’s Anganwadi reforms are an effort to change that and build a model for the country,” Sisodia told ANI.

According to the state government, Delhi has 10,752 Anganwadi centres functioning under the Central government’s Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme. More than 1,13,000 children and around 4,37,000 pregnant and lactating women are beneficiaries of the scheme. 

“There is a perception that Anganwadis are merely centres for providing food to children. Children would come, they were given food and sent back. Now an Early Childhood Care Curriculum is being introduced so that anganwadis provide the kind of care ad education that is provided at the expensive playschools. Even the poor will have access to the facilities that the rich do. Anganwadis will now be developed into playschools,” Kejriwal told ANI.

Upliftment Of Workers

Stressing on his government’s constant commitment to the welfare of Anganwadi workers, Kejriwal said, “I recall that many of you had come to us with the low salary problem. We could have hiked your salary than as per the norm by 10 per cent to 20 per cent, which was also what you had demanded. Instead, we had hiked your wages by 100 per cent. Delhi’s Anganwadi workers may now be the highest-paid in the country,” he added.

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