According to the findings, in Bihar, 23,000 of the sanctioned AWCs are yet to be operational, while in Maharashtra, of the sanctioned 4,908 AWCs, not a single one has been built
Over 10,000 posts in the anganwadi services in the country are lying vacant. To add to it, more than 34,000 sanctioned anganwadi centres (AWCs) are yet to be operational. Of these, Bihar alone has 23,000 non-operational AWCs, while in Madhya Pradesh 7,343 posts for officers in AWCs are lying vacant. Sikkim is the only state to have earned a compliment because its infant mortality rate came down to 17.
These findings are part of the annual review of the anganwadi services under the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), as communicated by the 36 states and Union Territories to the empowered programme committee headed by the secretary of the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development, Rakesh Srivastava. The meetings, held between Srivastava and officers of state WCDs or social welfare departments, were held between May 23 and June 21 this year.
According to the findings, in Bihar, 23,000 of the sanctioned AWCs are yet to be operational, while in Maharashtra, of the sanctioned 4,908 AWCs, not a single one has been built. In Tamil Nadu, of the 4,000 sanctioned AWCs, only 1,000 have been built. In Rajasthan, 1,331 AWCs are lying non-operational.
Several states had overstaffed posts in AWCs across the state, district and block level. In Nagaland, over 805 people were working in lieu of 252 posts sanctioned by the Centre. In Uttar Pradesh, over 784 people were working for 450 sanctioned posts. In Haryana, 911 people were employed for 590 posts.
On the other hand, in all, over 34,500 posts in AWCs were lying vacant across the state. These included 7,343 posts in Madhya Pradesh alone. "There were a total of 111 posts under CDPO, 466 posts under Supervisor, 3551 posts under AWW and 3215 under AWH that were observed to be vacant in the state. Secretary, MWCD requested the state to fill up the vacant posts (sic)," read the report.
Some states also had unique problems. Arunachal Pradesh informed the Centre that while 6,225 AWCs were sanctioned in the state, the state is highly prone to natural calamities, and that most of the buildings were made out of bamboos, mud, etc. "In response the State was advised to use wooden strips and other pucca building material," read the report. The state also informed the Centre that over 63 centres set in remote areas did not have electricity and internet. Neighbouring Assam informed the Centre that there were 8 lakh ghost children in its books, which were eliminated in the past year.
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