NEW DELHI: A survey of children enrolled in anganwadis in Assam has thrown up 14 lakh fake entries of names of children in records who actually were non existent when the state government conducted a ground verification. Sharing this information, Union minister for women and child development Maneka Gandhi said that this has prompted her ministry to write to all states to carry out surveys to establish the exact number of children in the anganwadi system.

There are around 14 lakh anganwadis across India and it is estimated that 10 crore children and women are beneficiaries of the facilities that operate under the Integrated Child Development Scheme.

As the government prepares to mark September as “poshan maah” (nutrition month), Gandhi said that to make the Poshan Abhiyaan (National Nutrition Mission) a success, it was critical for every state to know the exact number of children availing the facilities at anganwadis. “I want to ask all district magistrates to count every child in the anganwadis under their jursidiction. Identify the children who really need to be fed,” Gandhi said.

The Assam government had carried out a survey in June as part of which physical verification of the number of children (0 to 6 years age group) present in Anganwadis was done, said Gandhi, adding that when compared to the number of children registered there was a discrepancy of about 14 lakh. “If you go by the amount we spend per child per day (Rs 8) then it comes to crores of rupees that have been lost. This money can be saved for the well being of deserving children,” Gandi added.

The WCD minister said all states should also focus on improving the working of anganwadi staff who are often over burdened and also focus on nutrition value of food served to children. The Poshan Abhiyaan scheme's target is to bring down stunting of children in the age group of 0-6 years from 38.4% to 25% by the year 2022.

