Lauding the tireless efforts of Anganwadi workers in controlling the second wave of COVID-19, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said on Tuesday that Smart Anganwadi would be the foundation of all-round development of children.
“Smart phones will make your work even smarter and this smartness should be your identity. Smart phones will provide health-related information of every child, making the daily work easy and transparent. Prior to 2017, Anganwadi workers were known only for protests and now they are playing an important role in the nutrition and development of children with full commitment,” Yogi said while distributing smart phones to 1.23 lakh Anganwadi workers at a function held in Lucknow.
He also distributed as many as 1.87 lakh newborn growth monitoring devices (infantometer) to each Anganwadi centre to measure the growth level of newborns.
The Chief Minister stated that during the second wave of COVID-19, surveillance committees were formed to check the spread of deadly viral infection in rural areas and as part of these committees, Anganwadi workers went door-to-door to provide medical kits and made people aware of the Covid vaccine. “With their dedication and work, the Anganwadi workers have changed their perception among the people,” he said.
Referring to encephalitis, Yogi said that no one took care of the innocent, helpless patients from 1977 to 1997 and four children used to get treatment on a single bed in the hospitals of Gorakhpur-Basti division.
“No previous government paid attention but after the BJP came to power in 2017, we worked towards ending this situation and ensuring proper treatment to the patients, majority of whom were children. It was the Anganwadi workers’ who made the 'Dastak Abhiyan' successful. Today, if Uttar Pradesh has successfully eradicated encephalitis by 95-97 per cent, the credit should be given to Anganwadi workers,” he added.
Yogi said that once Anganwadi workers were infamous for ‘panjiri’ corruption.
“It not only tarnished the image of the government but also put a question mark on Anganwadis. Our government worked in this regard and now nutritious food is being prepared in the district itself, keeping in mind pregnant or lactating women,” he said.
Minister of Women, Child Development and Pustahar, Dr Neelkanth Tiwary, described smart phone distribution as an example of e-governance and stressed that Chief Minister Yogi was determined for good governance and e-governance was a very useful medium for good governance. He also thanked the chief minister for increasing the honorarium of Anganwadi workers.
“The government's effort behind providing smart phones to workers is to make Anganwadi programmes more transparent and update real-time data. It will help them to run the schemes run by Anganwadi, including nutrition and care of children more effectively,” he said.