New Delhi, 18 September 2020: As many as 1,303 Anganwadi Centres have been constructed under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the country till June 2020, informed Smriti Zubin Irani, Minister of Women and Child Development during the ongoing parliament session.
Responding to a query by Amee Yajnik from Indian National Congress, the union minister informed that there are a total of 13.83 Lakh operational Anganwadi Centres in India. Out of which, 1,303 AWC buildings have been completed under CSR, as on June 30, 2020.
Amee Yajnik had asked the minister whether the Government has any proposal to appeal to the corporate sector to spend a certain percentage share of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) towards the upgradation of Anganwadi Centres.
Responding to this, she informed, "Under the Anganwadi Services Scheme, there is a provision for upgradation of Anganwadi Centres. Some Corporates have also supported construction of Anganwadi Centres under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)."
At present India has a total of 13,99,697 Anganwadi Centres sanctioned, out of which around 13,83,875 centres are operational, according to the minister’s response to another question in Rajya Sabha.
Ever since the nature of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) was turned from voluntary to mandatory under the Companies Act 2013, the government has started seriously taking note of actual spend by corporate on their CSR activities.
The companies are also required to focus on some specific activities towards social upliftment and community welfare programmes that are aligned to United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDG).
Anganwadi Services scheme is one of the direct targeted interventions to address the problem of malnutrition in the country. It provides six child development related services. This includes Supplementary Nutrition, Pre-school Education, Health & Nutrition Education, Immunization, Health check-up and Referral Services. The services are provided at the Anganwadi Centres (AWCs) through Anganwadi Workers (AWWs) and Anganwadi Helpers (AWHs) to more than 8.75 crore beneficiaries across the country.
Keeping in view the acute shortage of Anganwadi Centre (AWC) buildings, several ministries of Government of India issued joint guidelines to construct around 4 lakh Anganwadi buildings across the country in convergence with Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). These ministries include the Ministry of Rural Development, Panchayati Raj and Women & Child Development. Under this scheme, the funds for construction of 29,941 AWC buildings in 2015-16 and 81,447 AWC buildings in 2016-17 were released to States/UTs.
Now, the government of India is also providing funds for upgradation of AWC building at a rate of Rs 2 lakh per building. It also provides Rs 3,000 for maintenance per AWC and Rs. 10,000 for Furniture & Equipment for every AWC once in 5 years.
