Assam government to provide smartphones to Anganwadi workers

The state Social Welfare department has started the process to procure smartphones.

According to the reports, there are over 61,000 Anganwadi centres under Intregated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) in the state.

The Assam Anganwadi workers would get the smartphones having Common Application Software.

The Anganwadi workers would enter the details including number of children, their health updates, weight etc in the specific software in the smartphones and will report it to the headquarters.

According to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4), 29.8 per cent of the total children under the age of five in Assam are underweight, 36.4 per cent are stunted and 35.7 per cent are anaemic.

Assam Social Welfare minister Pramila Rani Brahma said the Anganwadi workers should submit reports to the headquarters.

“They had submitted the reports through online by using commercial internet services. They have faced lots of problems. I had already discussed with the departmental officials to solve the problems,” Pramila Rani Brahma said.

“Earlier, the Anganwadi workers had demanded to provide computer, laptop for submitting the reports. Later I was informed that, there are such type of provisions as to provide smartphones to the Anganwadi workers and several other states had already taken this initiative. We will provide the smartphones to the Anganwadi workers within short period,” Brahma added.

(By Hemanta Kumar Nath, Guwahati)