Minister for upgradation of AWCs for better child development

Minister of State for Health and Medical Education, Social Welfare and Housing & Urban Development, Asiea Naqash, today said that upgradation of facilities at Anganwadi Centers (AWCs) is a must for promoting healthy child development.

 The Minister stated this while chairing a meeting of officers to review the implementation of various projects under Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS).

During the meeting, threadbare discussion was held on various issues including status of procurement of nutrition provided to the ICDS centers, convergence of existing AWCs into crèche, Upgradation of Anganwadi centers, Digitization of Data and linking of Aadhaar of beneficiaries and employees.

The meeting was told that presently there are 141 projects comprising 29599 AWCs operational in the State covering a population of 10, 33,197 souls including children, lactating mothers, pregnant women and adolescent girls.

The Minister was briefed that initiatives like Juvenile Justice Board (JJB), Child Welfare Community (CWC), State Child Protection Society (SCPS), District Child Protection Society (DSCS), Juvenile Police Unit, Village Child Protection Society, Children & observation Home and Shelter Home programme will be soon implemented to protect child rights.

On the occasion, the Minister directed the officers to ensure timely procurement and distribution of nutrition to the centers, saying that focus should be made on maintaining quality. She stressed for establishing an effective mechanism for procuring food items from local storage units. She further directed the concerned officials to rectify the issues like how to get analytic report of supplies and make sure that AWCs get quality supplies on time.

Asiea also directed the concerned officers to pay surprise visits to the Anganwadi Centers and check quantity and quality of the nutrition being provided to the children at these Centers.

With a view to further streamline functioning of ICDS centers, she exhorted them to identify suitable sites for construction of ICDS buildings for AWCs being run from rented accommodations.

The Minister also suggested for holding awareness camps and displaying the details of Social Welfare Schemes schemes through electronic billboards.

The meeting was attended by Secretary Social Welfare Sajad Ahmad Khan, Mission Director ICDS Talat Parvez, Deputy Director ICDS, DPOs, CDPOs and other concerned.

 

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