THE STATE government’s women and child development (WCD) department has not purchased any registers required by anganwadi workers to maintain data since 2015.
THE STATE government’s women and child development (WCD) department has not purchased any registers required by anganwadi workers to maintain data since 2015.
A Right to Information (RTI) application filed by Bhanudas Tekavade, a Navi Mumbai resident, with the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) has revealed that “none of the registers have been purchased from April 1, 2015 to January 29, 2019.”
Officials from WCD said that an anganwadi centre requires 11 registers as per the criteria set by the Union government. While registers for supplementary food stock, supplementary food distribution and pre-school education needs to be provided every year, the other registers are required once in a five years, said an official.
There are 2,06,000 workers in the state’s 97,000 anganwadis, operating schemes such as supplementary nutrition and health services for children and daycare for pre-primary schoolchildren. Anganwadi workers had gone on strike in September 2017 over several demands, including increase in honorarium and non-availability of registers in their centres. “We have been complaining about the unavailability of registers in anganwadi centres for the last few years. We have raised the issues in our protests but nothing has happened,” said M A Patil of the Maharashtra Anganwadi Workers’ Action Committee.
Patil said it clearly shows that the government is not serious about the issue. “The anganwadi workers have been paying from their pocket to purchase the registers. The government must provide registers to the anganwadi centres immediately,” he said.
Sources said that following the anganwadi workers’ protests, the ICDS had floated tenders to provide four registers — supplementary food distribution, pre-school education, reference service booklet and visit and suggestions register. “The tenders were floated in January 2018 and we had finalised the lowest bidders and sent the proposal to the government’s approval. It has been pending since then,” said an official from ICDS.
While ICDS Commissioner Indra Mallo was not available for comment, Vinita Singal, secretary of WCD, said that she was not aware why registers have not been purchased for the last four years. “But we are now in the process of purchasing mobile smart phones for anganwadi workers, so that they can maintain the data digitally,” said Singal.
A Right to Information (RTI) application filed by Bhanudas Tekavade, a Navi Mumbai resident, with the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) has revealed that “none of the registers have been purchased from April 1, 2015 to January 29, 2019.”
Officials from WCD said that an anganwadi centre requires 11 registers as per the criteria set by the Union government. While registers for supplementary food stock, supplementary food distribution and pre-school education needs to be provided every year, the other registers are required once in a five years, said an official.
There are 2,06,000 workers in the state’s 97,000 anganwadis, operating schemes such as supplementary nutrition and health services for children and daycare for pre-primary schoolchildren. Anganwadi workers had gone on strike in September 2017 over several demands, including increase in honorarium and non-availability of registers in their centres. “We have been complaining about the unavailability of registers in anganwadi centres for the last few years. We have raised the issues in our protests but nothing has happened,” said M A Patil of the Maharashtra Anganwadi Workers’ Action Committee.
Patil said it clearly shows that the government is not serious about the issue. “The anganwadi workers have been paying from their pocket to purchase the registers. The government must provide registers to the anganwadi centres immediately,” he said.
Sources said that following the anganwadi workers’ protests, the ICDS had floated tenders to provide four registers — supplementary food distribution, pre-school education, reference service booklet and visit and suggestions register. “The tenders were floated in January 2018 and we had finalised the lowest bidders and sent the proposal to the government’s approval. It has been pending since then,” said an official from ICDS.
While ICDS Commissioner Indra Mallo was not available for comment, Vinita Singal, secretary of WCD, said that she was not aware why registers have not been purchased for the last four years. “But we are now in the process of purchasing mobile smart phones for anganwadi workers, so that they can maintain the data digitally,” said Singal.