Anganwadi centres’ ops to become smart with app

Tirupati: The style and functioning of Anganwadi centres will witness a remarkable change in the days to come. Under a State-level programme, all centres will be equipped with smart phones with a special app which will facilitate completion of every activity online.

Simultaneously, in Chittoor district, all Anganwadi centres are becoming modern with the facilities being provided following the initiative of District Collector P S Pradyumna.

As part of the new initiative of the State government, all the workers in 4,768 Anganwadi centres and the ICDS office staff will be provided with smart phones. Already 5,000 smart phones with Common Application Software (CAS) have reached the district, said the Project Director of Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) G Usha Phanikar.

Speaking to The Hans India, she explained that, these phones will be given to all Anganwadi workers who have to enter the day to day activities at their centre in a specially designed App.

They have to enter the details of the services provided at their centres, the details of food given to the pregnant and lactating women, nutritious food given to the children, on which date each pregnant woman has delivered a child, vaccination details etc.

All the details will be linked to Dash Board. To train the workers in doing all these activities online, first Master Trainers are being given training at Mahila Pranganam in Tirupati by a firm from Vijayawada. These Master Trainers in turn, train up all Anganwadi workers. By completing the entire process, the government intends to start the programme from February 2018.

In Chittoor district, Collector Pradyumna wants to make ‘five star Anganwadi centres’ by providing electricity, water, toilet facility, furniture along with TV, and compound wall, kitchen and garden. And during “Palle Nidra” programme electricity and water facilities were provided in about 2,000 Anganwadis in a single day.

Subsequently, toilet and furniture facilities were also provided where they were lacking. With the help of donors, the furniture and television facilities were being provided in all the centres. Now, he proposed ‘Smart Anganwadis Concept’ which will have two pillars. On first pillar will have the infrastructure and on the second pillar, building the capacity of human resources will be taken up.

For this, a novel concept ‘Yasoda’ was introduced. With the help of universities, women will be trained on the best parenting methods, maintenance of hygienic conditions at home and personal hygiene, providing nutritious food and its details and monitoring high risk pregnant women among other things.

It is a six-month course and classes are held every weekend. A total of about 1500 women have enrolled their names to join Yasoda course and 1,345 were already admitted.

Many more may join the course as December 10 is the last date, observed ICDS PD Usha Phanikar. The minimum qualification is 10th class pass. Sri Padmavathi Mahila Visvavidyalayam (SPMVV) faculty will extend their services under the scheme.

By V Pradeep Kumar