Question : Impact of COVID-19 on Anganwadis

(a) whether the Government has conducted or proposes to conduct a survey on the impact of pandemic on Anganwadi services and malnutrition levels among children;

(b) if so, the details thereof along with the reports prepared and action taken thereon;

(c) whether the Government has prepared any data to understand how Anganwadi services were delivered on the ground during the pandemic and to assess the impact of COVID- l9 on stunting and wasting levels; and

(d) if so, the details thereof and if not the reasons there for?

ANSWER

MINISTRY OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT
(SRIMATI SMRITI ZUBIN IRANI)
(a) to (d) During the pandemic, as per the MHA guidelines, all Anganwadi Centres across the country were closed to limit the impact of COVID-19. However, to ensure continuous nutritional support to Anganwadi beneficiaries, Anganwadi Workers and Helpers distributed Supplementary Nutrition at the doorsteps of beneficiaries once in 15 days.
Further, Ministry of WCD has conceptualized a digital platform," Poshan Tracker”, a robust ICT enabled digital platform, launched in March, 2021 to ensure real time monitoring of provisioning of supplementary nutrition by use of data analytics for prompt supervision and management of services, tracking of all AWCs, AWWs and beneficiaries on defined indicators. Also, State/UTs are submitting progress reports on the implementation of Anganwadi Services to this Ministry.
As on 31.03.2021, Supplementary Nutrition has been provided to 8,31,80,208 beneficiaries under Anganwadi services out of which 6,75,06,918 are children in the age group of 6 months to 6 years and 1,56,73,290 are pregnant women and lactating mothers.
Anganwadi Centres are still closed due to Covid-19 pandemic. No survey has been planned on ground, as human interaction has been minimised to control the spread of virus.

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