New Delhi: The government is collaborating with a Gujarat-based agency to geo-map all anganwadi centres, the Women and Child Development Ministry said on Tuesday (March 28). The information was given to a parliamentary standing committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports by the WCD ministry. The parliamentary committee report was tabled in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.
The Ministry is also doing collaboration with Bhaskaracharya Institute for Space Applications & Geo-informatics (BISAG-N) for geo-mapping of AWCs, it said.
There are nearly 14 lakh anganwdi centres in the country. The WCD ministry said that 90.49 per cent of beneficiaries registered on the Poshan Tracker have been successfully verified with Aadhar.
The WCD ministry said the integration of the Poshan Tracker with Reproductive and Child Health (RCH) portal of Health and Family Welfare Ministry is under progress.
The RCH Portal is designed for early identification and tracking of the individual beneficiary throughout the reproductive life cycle of women and promote, monitor and support the reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health (RMNCH) schemes delivery and reporting.
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Further, the Ministry of Women and Child Development has also established a call centre under POSHAN Abhiyaan.
A toll-free number ‘14408’ is allocated to Ministry of WCD for POSHAN Abhiyaan Helpline. The Call Centre is enabled with both Inbound & Outbound calls. Call Centre is supported for multi-lingual and expansion is synchronised with Roll-out of ICDSCAS Application. The outbound are made in following languages i.e. English, Hindi, Telugu,Tamil, Marathi and Malayalam, the ministry told the parliamentary panel.
The Committee noted that the WCD ministry has utilised Rs. 17,251.95 crore as on February 27 which is about 72.09 per cent of the amount allocated under RE i.e Rs 23,912.69 crores.
The Committee also recommended that the factors responsible for underutilisation of funds by states/bodies be identified and remedial action be taken in a time bound manner.
The committee also pointed out that the utilisation of funds for different schemes varies from 70-71 per cent of RE 2022-23.
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Noting that the WCD ministry has been allocated 92.7 per cent of the projected demand, the Committee recommended that there is a need to encourage state governments to develop a robust mechanisms which can help push for enhanced fund utilization from the funds allocated.
It is also noted by the Committee that funds utilisation out of the allocated amount to various organizations have been about 89.5 per cent of the total allocated amount, it said.
The Committee recommended that it would be beneficial for the ministry to prepare a Standard Operating Procedure towards each major scheme with responsibilities, timelines and an in-built monitoring mechanism.
The Committee also recommended that the factors responsible for underutilisation of funds by states/bodies be identified and remedial action be taken in a time-bound manner.
Noting the allocations under major Schemes, the Committee pointed out that as per the Budget Estimates 2023-24, majority of the ministry’s total allocation distributed primarily amongst the three Centrally Sponsored Schemes namely Saksham Anganwadi and POSHAN 2.0 Scheme, Mission Shakti and Mission Vatsalya.
Also, around Rs 258 crores have been allocated amongst autonomous bodies such as National Commission for Women, Central Adoption Resource Authority, National Institute of Public Cooperation and Child Development and the National Commission for the Protection of Child’s Rights.
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(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
NDTV – Dettol have been working towards a clean and healthy India since 2014 via the Banega Swachh India initiative, which is helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan. The campaign aims to highlight the inter-dependency of humans and the environment, and of humans on one another with the focus on One Health, One Planet, One Future – Leaving No One Behind. It stresses on the need to take care of, and consider, everyone’s health in India – especially vulnerable communities – the LGBTQ population, indigenous people, India’s different tribes, ethnic and linguistic minorities, people with disabilities, migrants, geographically remote populations, gender and sexual minorities. In wake of the current COVID-19 pandemic, the need for WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) is reaffirmed as handwashing is one of the ways to prevent Coronavirus infection and other diseases. The campaign will continue to raise awareness on the same along with focussing on the importance of nutrition and healthcare for women and children, fight malnutrition, mental wellbeing, self care, science and health, adolescent health & gender awareness. Along with the health of people, the campaign has realised the need to also take care of the health of the eco-system. Our environment is fragile due to human activity, which is not only over-exploiting available resources, but also generating immense pollution as a result of using and extracting those resources. The imbalance has also led to immense biodiversity loss that has caused one of the biggest threats to human survival – climate change. It has now been described as a “code red for humanity.” The campaign will continue to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and sanitation workers and menstrual hygiene. Banega Swasth India will also be taking forward the dream of Swasth Bharat, the campaign feels that only a Swachh or clean India where toilets are used and open defecation free (ODF) status achieved as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, can eradicate diseases like diahorrea and the country can become a Swasth or healthy India.
