NEW DELHI: The Delhi government is facing a shortage of Child Development Project Officers (CDPOs). Currently, only 24 of them are taking care of the 95 anganwadi projects in the capital. The CDPOs are block-level monitoring officers of the extensive ICDS system, which comprises anganwadi centres. Ideally, there should be one CDPO heading each of the 95 projects. But because of the shortage, each one is taking care of four-five projects.
In 2018, there were 40 such officers and the number has gradually reduced to 24. According to officials, there is a shortage of officers and recruitment has not been done for many years, due to which the CDPOs are overburdened.
“No doubt there is a shortage of officers and there is a lack of people responsible for monitoring,” said an official. According to the official, CDPOs are hired through UPSC exam and a promotional exam conducted by the state government.
When The Morning Standard tried to contact the Women and Child Development (WCD) department’s director Rashmi Singh to know the reasons behind the shortage of officers, she was not unavailable. Deputy Director Lata Negi was not available for a response either.
The work of CDPOs involves preparing reports on projects and block-level monitoring of anganwadi programmes. Because of the crunch, the load on anganwadi workers increases indirectly. The documentation tasks that a CDPO performs are handed over to supervisors who then pass it on to the workers to complete. There are 22 CDC (Current Duty Chart) officers, who are cluster-level supervisors and have been given higher block-level charge with limited powers. Each CDPO has around five CDC supervisors working under them.
Some of the responsibilities of CDPO involves preparing plans to meet the needs of children in the Block, guiding preparation of village/gram/urban centres and ICDS Mission plans, collating the indents received for requirement of the SNP, procuring nutrition supplements, attending at least 2 monthly Mother-Child Day linked to NRHM Village Health Day, working with district administration for release of funds, taking feedback from supervisors on ICDS, facilitating convergence with MOs, LHVs, ANMs and ASHAs and coordinating with PRIs in coordinating the delivery of services.
Some of the responsibilities of CDPO
95 Projects under the programme. Each one of them should ideally be looked after by a CDPO
24 Number of CDPOs at the moment. Each looking after 4-5 projects due to the crunch