BHUBANESWAR: The Centre has approved a series of measures to strengthen anganwadi infrastructure, with more than 21,000 centres receiving approvals for construction, drinking water supply, toilet facilties and upgradation under various schemes.
Informing this to Parliament recently, Union minister of state for Women and Child Development Savitri Thakur said 1,639 anganwadi centres (AWCs) will be constructed under the MGNREGS (now renamed as VB-G-RAM-G) convergence with an allocation of Rs 9.66 crore.
Under the scheme, Rs 8 lakh is provided through MGNREGS, Rs 2 lakh by the 15th Finance Commission or other untied funds and another Rs 2 lakh through the Ministry of Women and Child Development, subject to the prescribed Centre-state cost-sharing ratio, she said.
The Centre has also sanctioned 89 anganwadi centres in Odisha under PM JANMAN for targeted development of tribal communities. An amount of Rs 10.68 crore has been allocated for these centres.
The minister said infrastructure gaps related to basic amenities are also being addressed. She said 6,965 AWCs have been approved for drinking water facilities with allocation of over Rs 17.82 crore. Similarly, 16,575 AWCs have been approved for construction of toilets and Rs 2,4.59 crore has been allocated.
According to information provided by the minister, the Centre is also upgrading existing centres as Saksham Anganwadis under Mission Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0. Odisha has been allocated 12,140 such centres with sanction of Rs 72.84 crore for the initiative. Saksham Anganwadis are intended to provide improved facilities for nutrition delivery and early childhood care and education (ECCE). According to the ministry, these upgraded centres will have facilities such as LED screens, water filtration systems, poshan vatika, ECCE learning material and Building As Learning Aid (BALA) paintings.
Thakur said the Centre is approving 10,000 centres annually for construction under the national programme, while 40,000 AWCs have been approved under MGNREGS. Two lakh AWCs located in government buildings are being strengthened as Saksham Anganwadis.
