NEW DELHI: The Planning Commission is thinking of raising the remuneration of Anganwadi workers, who currently earn `3,000 a month. “We need to dignify the ICDS (Integrated Child Development Services) workers. They are paid very low remunerations,” Syeda Hamid, member of the commission, has said.
“There was an increase recently, when their remuneration was doubled from `1,500 to `3,000. We are thinking of increasing it further,” Hamid said after releasing a book, The Integrated Child Development Scheme: A Flagship Adrift.
Several other changes in the scheme are being planned for the second year of the 12th Plan (2013), she said. “Transforming the Anganwadi into a creche, and fulfilling nutrition needs will be the focus of the changes we are planning.” “Serving hot or, at least, locally-cooked food will be another focus,” she said, adding that the packaged food being given at several centres was not up to the mark. Hamid said the commission’s aim was to converge ICDS with other government programmes and focus it on overall health and nutrition.