training of anganwadi workers in icds program

Scope of improvement in pre-school education training for Anganwadi Workers (ICDS) Social Development and Social Policy Project

Abhishek Minz (0010/49)| Ishan Pendam (0230/49) | Maharshi Nitish Singh (0182/49) | Udit

Singh (0370/49) | Ajit Singh Verma (0035/49) | Koushlendra Singh Yadav (0185/49)

7/21/2013

Abstract

Non formal Preschool education is an important component of Integrated Child Development. The

present research report is based on an investigation of this component in ICDS centres of South 24

Pargana district of West Bengal state. The research involves in-depth study of CINI Chetana Resource

Center (CCRC)-a training wing of CINI India which is responsible for providing pre-school education

training to AWW (Anganwadi workers). This report aims to identify various ICT (Information and

Communication Technology) based alternatives which would be beneficial for imparting training to

Anganwadi workers. Considering the budget constraints for such NGOs these alternatives could work

towards reducing the cost of the training.

ICDS Programme (Integrated Child Development Services)

Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), Government of India sponsored programme, is India's

primary social welfare scheme to tackle malnutrition and health problems in children below 6 years

of age and their mothers. The main beneficiaries of the programme were aimed to be the girl child

up to her adolescence, all children below 6 years of age, pregnant and lactating mothers. The gender

promotion of the girl child by trying to bring her at par with the male child is a key component of the

scheme.1 Majority of children in India have underprivileged childhoods starting from birth. The

infant mortality rate of Indian children is 442 and the under-five mortality rate is 93 and 25% of new-

born children are underweight among other nutritional, immunization and educational deficiencies

of children in India. Figures for India are substantially worse than the developing country average.2

Given such a daunting challenge, ICDS was first launched in 19753 in accordance to the National

Policy for Children in India. Over the years it has grown into one of the largest integrated family and

1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_Child_Development_Services_(India)

2 "UNICEF - Respecting the rights of the Indian child". UNICEF. Retrieved 22 March 2011.

3 "Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme". Ministry of Women & Child Development,

Government of India. Retrieved 21 March 2011

community welfare schemes in the world. Given its effectiveness over the last few decades,

Government of India has committed towards ensuring universal availability of the programme.

Objectives

The predefined objectives of ICDS are:

1. To raise the health and nutritional level of poor Indian children below 6 years of age

2. To create a base for proper mental, physical and social development of children in India

3. To reduce instances of mortality, malnutrition and school dropouts among Indian Children

4. To coordinate activities of policy formulation and implementation among all departments of

various ministries involved in the different government programmes and schemes aimed at

child development across India.

5. To provide health and nutritional information and education to mothers of young children to

enhance child rearing capabilities of mothers in country of India

Scope of Services

The following services are sponsored under ICDS to help achieve its objectives:

1. Immunization

2. Supplementary nutrition

3. Health check-up

4. Referral services

5. Pre-school non formal education

6. Nutrition and Health information

The AWC, managed by the Anganwadi Worker (AWW) with Anganwadi Helper (AWH), is the single

window for delivery of the entire package of services offered by the program4. On an average, an

4 http://202.138.101.21/dwcd/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=62%3Aintegrated-child-

development-services&catid=117%3Aicds&Itemid=128&lang=en

AWC covers population of 1,000 (700 in rugged terrain and tribal tracts). It caters to children below

6 years and women in the reproductive age group (15-45 years) especially pregnant women and

lactating mothers. At present 61187 AWCs and 3331 mini anganwadi centers are functioning in 204

ICDS projects in the State, covering all the 175 taluks (181 rural projects & 12 tribal & 11

urban projects). During 2012-13, 55.07 lakh beneficiaries availed benefits under the scheme.

1) Administrative cost: Till the year 2008-09, the entire administrative cost under ICDS was met by

the Central Government. However, from 2009-10, the sharing pattern has changed to 90:10 under

which, the salaries, honoraria, monitoring and evaluation, PSE and medicine kits etc., of ICDS

functionaries and AWCs are met.

2) Anganwadi Workers/Helpers uniform: As per GOI guidelines Anganwadi Workers/Helpers should

be provided with 2 sarees worth Rs.300 each year. During 2012-13 2 sarees will be supplied by KHDC

to 121648 AWW/Mini AWW/AWH who are actually functioning.

3) Pre-School Kit: Under ICDS administrative cost each AWC and Mini AWC is provided Rs 1000/- &

Rs.500/- respectively towards purchase of pre-school kit. To provide uniformity and to maintain

quality of the pre-school kit in AWCs, a state level committee was formed with specialists in the

field of education and also ICDS functionaries at various levels. Workshops were held to develop a

Model Pre-school Kit. Further, action has been taken to supply this Model pre-school kit to all 64518

AWCs after following an e- tender process at district level.

4) Medicine Kit: Under ICDS Administrative cost, 61187 anganwadi centres and 3331 mini

anganwadi centres were provided medicine kits @ Rs. 600/- for each Anganwadi Centre and Rs.

300/- for each mini anganwadi centre.

Literature Review

Non - formal5 preschool education is a very crucial component of the package of services envisaged

under ICDS scheme as it seeks to lay foundation for adequate physical, psychological, cognitive and

social development of child. Good preschool education increases cognitive abilities, school

achievements, improves classroom behaviour and decreases grade repetition among children

(Barnett, 2004). Preschool education through ICDS focuses on the holistic development of the child.

The objectives of preschool education under ICDS are as below: 1) to provide a stimulating

environment for intellectual, linguistic, social emotional and physical development of child. 2) To

prepare the child for primary grades. 3) To lay the foundation for the development of reading,

writing and numeric skills. 4) To encourage interaction with environment and creative problem

solving among children. 5) To stress on providing first-hand experience to children who would

ensure development of skills related to the process of learning. 6) To promote self-control and

thereby discipline in children. As founded in the study6, pre-school is the weakest component in the

ICDS program. Since the AWWs have to spend a lot of time on various added responsibilities other

than ICDS activities (assisting ANMs in administering polio drops, Stree Shakti activities etc). AWWs

stated to have insufficient time to concentrate on the pre-school activity. Stree Shakti, which has

considerable political patronage in rural Karnataka, is considered to be more important. AWWs are

to assist the women of the village in bank transactions. Since many of the women are illiterate,

AWWs have to assist them in filling in the correct challan and depositing the money. The preschool

activity which is to be conducted at least for two-hours a day was rarely seen in the AWCs visited by

the study team. The unsatisfactory condition of pre-school activity was found in a substantial

number of AWCs. There has been a considerable demand from the parents that the AWC should

provide reading and writing skills as part of the preschool activities. The presence of other private

5 Rajni Dhingra, Iesha Sharma, “Assessment of Preschool Education Component of ICDS Scheme in Jammu

District” 6 Somaioh, M. and Vijayalakshmi, V.(2007). Management Perspective of ICDS programme. Dharama Bhavan’s

Business Journal. 1(1).

schools offering English and Kannada medium education, provide reading and writing skills at the

pre-school level. This has encouraged the parents to demand similar services from the ICDS. Many of

the AWWs, who are to be recruited from the community/village, were found to be commuting 4-12

kms to attend AWCs. This resulted (in most cases) incomplete and inefficient performance, either

due to delayed arrival or being absent. Education Department, which is expected to work in

coordination with ICDS especially on the pre-school education component, is found to lack the

expected coordination. One of the core objectives of the pre-school is to inculcate habit of schooling

among children of 3-6 years. If this habit is reinforced, it should result in low or no dropout in the

primary school. Mid-day meals are introduced in the primary school to check school dropout. It is

recommended that all the AWCs should be located in the school building in order to provide the

desirable linkages to school education.

CINI (Child in Need India)7

CINI is an Indian non-government organisation (NGO) regarded as one of the most influential

institutions working for children in India. Over the past four decades, they have been partnering with

central and state government, national and international donors, non-government organisations and

local communities to strengthen the capacity of deprived children and women to improve their

health, nutrition, education and protection conditions. Distilling international and national

experience, they seek to learn from the poor to improve our interventions in under-serviced rural

and urban areas. We aim at strengthening local governance processes that give marginalised

communities a voice and influence national policy. They adopt a human rights-based approach in

their programmes, fostering partnerships for local development among community actors, service

providers and elected representatives.

7 http://www.cini-india.org/

CINI Chetana Resource Center (CCRC) - The Training wing

The training unit of CINI was set up in 1975 in response to the institutional need for training and was

registered as an independent body in 1989. CINI Chetana today specialises in different aspects of

training such as training needs assessment, curriculum development, training package development,

organising and facilitating training and evaluation of training programmes. The key programmes

include Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) training for Anganwadi workers, helpers and

supervisors, specialised training on Behaviour Change Communication for partner NGOs in West

Bengal and other states of India, Training of Trainers (TOT) for internal teams as well as external

partners, community-based trainings on RCH for different level of functionaries for Government and

NGOs, training of students from various academic institutions like IGNOU, Calcutta University and

Nursing Institutes (Government and Private).

Budget & Trainings

Training of the ICDS functionaries is one of the most vital components of ICDS programme and

is acknowledged as the key factor in the successful implementation of the programme.

According to the interactions with the CINI officials, they have to operate 4 different types of

training sessions for the workers, as notified and laid down by the Government of India. These

are:

(1) Job Training – This is the major training imparted to the workers and is spread over 32 days

(six days per week, Saturdays working) with 26 working days. Out of this, 23 days are for

institutional training with practical and mock sessions covering six major components, that

is, General Orientation, ICDS Programme, Early Childhood Care and Development, Nutrition

and Health Care, Communication, Advocacy and Community Participation and Organisation

and Management. The remaining 3 days are for Supervised Practice, which to provide

opportunity to the trainee Child Development Project Officers (CDPOs)/ Assistant Child

Development Project Officers (ACDPOs) to learn by doing and sharpen their skills for

planning and management of ICDS .

The job training is to be conducted using participatory learning techniques. The classroom

teaching is to be supported by role-play, demonstration, mock sessions, practical exercises

and case studies. In order to give quality training, feedback mechanism is built into each

component.

Apart from this, there are 10 courses that are held each year as part of job training, and

monetary support is provided for acquisition of resources like training material, honorarium

to guest speakers/trainers, incentives to trainees, TAs for trainees, Boarding and Lodging

facilities etc.

The major objectives of job training are to:

Orient CDPOs/ ACDPOs to various components of ICDS.

Enable them to develop skills necessary to become effective managers and

implementers of ICDS programme.

Acquaint them with ways of eliciting community participation to maximise the reach

of services of ICDS.

Make them aware of their roles and responsibilities and those of other ICDS and

Block functionaries.

The following is the budget of the Job Training Programme:

8 http://wcd.nic.in/icdstraining/cdpo_jtc_int.pdf

http://wcd.nic.in/icdstraining/cdpo_jtc_int.pdf

Figure 1- Job Training of Anganwadi Workers

(2) Refresher Training – This is another one of the major training given to the officers. Under

ICDS the CDPOs/ ACDPOs are the project managers entrusted with the responsibility of

managing the delivery of services effectively. In order to share generic information as well as

updates in the field of ICDS, refresher courses are organised from time to time with an

objective to enhance their supervisory, monitoring and liaison skills for effective

coordination and convergence of services at the Anganwadi . The training takes

place over 7 days with 5 working days with 40 participants per course. The following is the

budget for refresher training:

Figure 2 - Refresher Training of Anganwadi Workers

9 http://wcd.nic.in/icdstraining/icdstrainingcurriculam.htm

http://wcd.nic.in/icdstraining/icdstrainingcurriculam.htm

(3) Orientation Training - Orientation training aims to orient the participants to the various

components of the ICDS scheme, acquaint them with the syllabi for Anganwadi Workers

(AWWs) and Helpers (AWHs), help them to understand the role and responsibilities of Heads

of AWTCs in monitoring and supervision of training of AWWs/ AWHs, and identify the

problems in effective implementation of training and evolve ways and means of handling

them. The following is the budget for orientation training:

Figure 3 - Orientation Training of instructors of AWTCs

(4) Induction Training – This is the one time training is given to each worker upfront to initiate

him to the process and ways of ICDS. It lasts for 11 days, in which 8 days are working with 20

participants per course. The budget is given below:

Figure 4 - Induction Training of Anganwadi Workers

Apart from the various training modules, a honoraria for the staff at an Anganwadi Training Centre

(AWTC) is also provided to the NGO for deciding the compensation to be provided to each member

of the programme on a per month basis, as laid down by the Government. The honoraria is as

follows:

Figure 5 - Honoraria for staff of AWTCs

Issues

Based on inspection of the financial data and our interaction with the CINI officials, our analysis

suggests that the major factors which constrain effective utilisation of funds under ICDS emanate

from budgetary and institutional bottlenecks. The following issues were found to be prevalent at

the basic (NGO) level:

1) Role of Panchayati Workers – The role of village/block level government bodies in

supporting the Anganwadi workers was found to be wanting in several aspects. In terms of

providing support to run the centres, these institutions are not believed to be too helpful.

2) Low Motivational Levels – In general, we found out that the motivation level of the

Anganwadi workers and Anganwadi helpers was low. This was in account of the low

honoraria paid to them and the contractual nature of their employment, which meant lack

of job and social security. Anganwadi workers were until recently provided Rs. 1500 as per

month while the helpers were paid around Rs. 750, in spite of their high work load.

However, with the recent revision done by the Govt. of India (as shown in the honorarium

above), this problem is likely to be resolved.

3) Low and Unrealistic Unit Costs - With the prevalent unit costs for a majority of the

components being low and unrealistic, it is difficult for implementing officials to effectively

operate and spend money under the programme. That apart, due to the high rate of

inflation, the unit costs for petrol, oil and lubricants (POL), material for early learning, and

information, education and communication (IEC) also need to be upwardly revised.

4) Deficiencies in Provision of services – Though the centre that we visited had maintained all

the facilities, upon talking to the officials we found out that there were several other centres

throughout the state itself where there were issues such as the weighing machines not

working regularly, non-provision of recreational material to children, seating arrangement

being not so child-friendly, absence of toilet facilities etc. The anganwadi centres located in

interior regions, suffered from infrastructure and communication problems indicating a need

for extra funds for construction of new buildings, and for the maintenance of the existing

buildings.

Cost Benefit Analysis

Now we will look at the effect of virtualization on the training modules one by one.

A superficial analysis of the training modules provides with the idea that training has two

components of theoretical and practical aspects. Here, in our cost benefit analysis of virtualisation is

done with the concept that virtualisation can only remove the burden of theoretical training.

Hence, the costs incurred due to theoretical training have only been considered to be removed. The

idea behind being that theoretical trainings can be conducted through virtual mode at different

locations and thus enabling partial deduction various involved costs like those of boarding and

lodging, training material etc.

The tables given below under each training type evaluate the cost of virtualisation in each training

type against the cost and partial reduction in current mode. The benefit of virtualisation has been

calculated as percentage saving of virtualisation mode over manual mode of training. A rough and

realistic value for costs like hardware cost, electricity cost has been taken for the purpose of

calculations.

1) JOB TRAINING

Job Training

Item Cost (INR) Period Additional Details

Hardware (per pc) 25,000 5 years 5

Electricity 30 1 working day 10 hours per day

Internet 150 1 month Shared Internet

Maintenance 1000 1 Year Warranty for first three years

Invigilator 7500 1 Month

Total Cost for 5 years 2614000

Total Cost for 1 year 522800

Total Cost per batch (10

batches of 35) 45834.52055

Total Cost per batch 458345.2055

Now, we look at the cost reduction possible:

Item Cost

Cost

Reduction New cost

Boarding & Lodging 840000 75% 210000

TA to WWS 105000 50% 52500

Honorarium 2500 50% 1250

Training Material 35000 50% 17500

Local Conveyance 15000 50% 7500

Incentives 175000 0% 175000

Total 1172500 463750

Final cost including the plan 922095.2

Benefit 21% 250404.8

2) Refresher Training

Refresher Training









Total Cost per Training 36685.15068

Total Cost per 10 Training 366851.5068

Now, we look at the scope of cost reduction:

Item Cost

Cost

Reduction New cost


TA to WWS 105000 50% 52500




Incentives 175000 0% 175000

Total 1172500 337750


Benefit 40% 467898.5

3) Orientation Training

Orientation Training











Now, looking at the scope of cost reduction:

Item Cost

Cost

Reduction New cost


TA to WWS 105000 50% 52500




Incentives 175000 0% 175000

Total 1172500 337750


Benefit 24% 284911.1

4) Induction Training

Induction Training











Now, looking at the scope of cost reduction:

Item Cost

Cost

Reduction New cost


TA to WWS 105000 50% 52500




Incentives 175000 0% 175000

Total 1172500 413000


Benefit 18% 209661.1

So, we look at the overall effectiveness of the proposed plan:

Recommendations and Conclusions

Based on the interactions with the CINI officials and the cost benefit analysis done, the following

recommendations can be enlisted:

1) Firstly, we focussed on the cost cutting aspect, whereby we decided to reduce the spending

on Job Training and Refresher Training, which comprise the major part of the training

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

J.T R.T O.T I.T

Savings

module of Anganwadi workers. By doing this, we can achieve considerable savings which can

then be used on securing better Information and Communication Technology (ICT) services

for education of children.

2) Looking at the number of training that the Anganwadi workers have to go through, we

believe that some additional cost benefit can be achieved by combining the Orientation

Training and the Induction Training, as both have near similar objectives and neither of them

is as essential as Job Training or Refresher Training.

3) By achieving the above benefits, we can introduce better medium of education for the

children by utilising the services of organizations like Bodhaguru which provide

comprehensive, inexpensive and a holistic mode of learning for the school children using

several ICT tools and devices. Such immersive learning (learning through projectors, TV,

videos and animations etc) would provide the children with a far more enriching and

informative experience and help to improve the quality of education of the ICDS

programme.

4) We can also introduce the concept of self-driven learning and training approach, a highly

acclaimed concept introduced by Dr. Sugata Mitra (Chief Scientist – NIIT). The central idea

behind this initiative is that groups of children can learn on their own without any direct

intervention. This was conceptually explained by Mitra as Minimally Invasive Education

(MIE . It is defined as a pedagogic method that uses the learning environment to

generate an adequate level of motivation to induce learning in groups, with minimal, or no,

intervention by a teacher. MIE uses children's natural curiosity and focuses on providing an

enabling environment where they can learn on their own, where children can share their

knowledge and in the process, develop better group dynamics, all in a highly natural

environment. All of this comes at a very minimal cost as well, which means that such an

idea can be implemented in the education of the children, with highly effective results.

10 http://www.hole-in-the-wall.com/insight.html

http://www.hole-in-the-wall.com/insight.html

training of anganwadi workers in icds program

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social development of

girl child

male child

icds programme

majority of children

newborn children

training wing of cini

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