Jammu Kashmir Has 28,082 Anganwadi Workers, 27,972 Helpers  | Kashmir Life

SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir has 28,082 Anganwadi workers and 27,972 Anganwadi helpers in position, the Centre told Parliament, underscoring the Union territory’s sizeable frontline workforce delivering early childhood care and nutrition under Mission Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0.

The Ministry of Women and Child Development report says the countrywide network comprises over 1.4 million Anganwadi centres that deliver six services — supplementary nutrition, pre school nonformal education, nutrition and health education, immunisation, health check up and referral services — through Anganwadi Workers and Helpers supported under the centrally sponsored Mission Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0. The Centre also noted that Anganwadi Workers receive a central honorarium of Rs 4,500 per month and Anganwadi Helpers Rs 2,250 per month after the 2018 revision, with performance linked incentives of Rs 500 and Rs 250 respectively.

Beyond basic pay, Jammu and Kashmir provides state top ups of Rs 600 per month to Anganwadi Workers and Rs 300 per month to Anganwadi Helpers, a level that the Ministry’s annexure shows is modest compared with additional honorarium paid by several other States and Union territories. For example, some States supplement the central payment by several thousand rupees per month.

Cook cum Helpers deployed under the national midday meal programme in Jammu and Kashmir number 32,394, of whom 7,389 are male and 25,005 are female. The Centre’s return shows that the prescribed honourarium for cook cum helpers in Jammu and Kashmir is Rs 1,000 per month and no additional State top up has been recorded for the same period.

The Ministry highlighted several non monetary measures intended to strengthen service delivery and worker welfare: issuance of smartphones to Anganwadi Workers and rollout of the Poshan Tracker mobile application to digitise registers and enable real time monitoring; expanded promotion pathways; defined leave and maternity provisions; social security coverage including life and accident insurance; and encouragement for enrolment under the voluntary Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Mandhan pension scheme. The report also refers to an announced annual healthcare coverage of Rs 5 lakh under Ayushman Bharat for Anganwadi Workers and Helpers.

The data released to Parliament points to wide interstate variation in financial support to frontline workers, a disparity that will shape debates over retention, morale and quality of services in the run up to next year’s planning cycles. In Jammu and Kashmir the workforce numbers indicate strong human resource presence on the ground, but the relatively modest top ups compared with some States may prompt calls from stakeholders for higher supplementary support to Anganwadi functionaries.