Anganwadi (Hindi pronunciation: [ãːɡɐnɐʋaːɖiː]) is a type of rural child care centre in India.
[5] Through the Anganwadi system, the country is trying to meet its goal of providing affordable and accessible healthcare to local populations.
Anganwadi workers have the advantage over the physicians living in the same rural area, which gives them insight into the state of health in the locality and assists in identifying the cause of problems and in countering them.
Detractors, including Nobel Prize winner Amartya Sen, argued against it, saying that it will become the only food consumed by the children.
Anganwadi employees, mostly women who earn less than $150 a month, if they even have smartphones, experienced repeated crashes of this app or found that they do not understand enough English to use it.
Many lack phone reception and electricity in their villages and ask why meticulously written ledgers, used for years, no longer suffice.
[13] The Integrated Child Development Services scheme did not have provision for the construction of AWC buildings as this was envisaged to be provided by the community except for the North Eastern States.
Further, construction of AWC has been notified as a permissible activity under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA).
[15] UNICEF and the UN Millennium Development Goals of reducing infant mortality and improving maternal care are the impetus for increasing focus on the Anganwadis.